The timing of the debate of the private member’s motion
on the Government’s handling of the crime situation in
Trinidad and Tobago, moved by Independent Senator Professor
Ramesh Deosaran was clearly welcomed by the Opposition UNC.
In an election year they have persuaded themselves that the
UNC would be able to extract rich political dividends from
the electorate, should it focus on crime, which, it hopes,
will prove to be the Achilles heel of the ruling PNM.
Such an obvious UNC strategy will not be without its risks
as its cabal of political managers must now be ruefully recognising.
There is UNC’s own record in office, which will inevitably
play an important part in any public discussion of crime.
The UNC’s political record in office is not one that
would inspire the electorate’s confidence in the integrity
of its leadership. UNC’s leadership has become associated
with intemperateness and consumed by the arrogance of power,
which a number of its leaders have allegedly abused and now
stand accused of using unlawfully and for which they are now
awaiting due process.
Indeed, in a relatively short tenure, 1995 to 2001, UNC’s
rule has become synonymous with pervasive corruption, a most
heinous crime because of its betrayal of the public trust.
As COP’s leader Winston Dookeran told the San Fernando
Rotary Club last November, corruption did not have a place
in a democratic society and that betrayal of the public trust
was the first mistake in the democratic system. Dookeran then
asked, “Have we become immune to those who betray the
public so openly and yet expect to get support for another
term?”
In an election year, the people will expect the UNC to account
fully for the kleptomaniac image it has brought upon itself.
Worse yet, the UNC now has to contend with an unexpected development,
a product of its own deviousness and overweening arrogance-the
Harry Mungalsingh factor and the risk inherent in the UNC
being unwilling or unable to control contributing moneyed
political neophytes from articulating UNC policy.
In his enthusiasm to assist UNC to gain political dominance
by any means necessary, wittingly or unwittingly, Senator
Mungalsingh disclosed some of UNC’s innermost secrets,
which were never intended for public consumption because of
the negative impact such revelations would create on the public
image of the UNC.
Senator Mungalsingh said what he truly wanted to say, speaking
from a prepared text with utmost deliberateness and without
objection from UNC’s senior and more experienced Senate
leadership.
Mungalsingh’s enunciation of UNC’s policy for dealing
with crime is to place it in the context of politics, race
and eugenics and to tell the nation a UNC government will
be best able to lead T&T to his promised nirvana.
His are serious and dangerous views that warrant extensive
reproduction so that the electorate will be able to form a
proper judgment of UNC-style democracy as expressed by Mungalsingh
without UNC repudiation.
Mungalsingh: “Crime is causing much fear; cold-blooded
execution-style murders in 16 PNM controlled communities along
the East-West corridor, Central and South Trinidad, and kidnapping
of primarily Indians in Central Trinidad are as much a reflection
of a failed development policy in these communities as it
is with a failed security management ...
“The first approach to dealing with crime is to understand
the social structure of communities in which crime is perpetrated
... We need a comprehensive statistical analysis of the current
prison population ... This will tell you the nation’s
bad business and who is doing what, when where by race, religion,
sex, age, education level, crime-producing communities and
family structures ...
“Eight-three per cent of the prison population are from
specific communities that predicates the need for a strong
and distinct national development plan accepted by the entire
society for these specific communities and Government knows
which communities they are ...
“Such a plan must include the churches. A change in abortion
laws; strong family planning services with cash incentives
for voluntary sterilisation; re-education in reading, writing
and arithmetic ... Only a new government will be able to lead
their constituencies into their promised land and nirvana.”
This must be a mark of UNC’s political desperation.
How could the UNC expect to appeal successfully beyond its
now divided heartland into PNM’s and the wider national
community, by advocating a policy of mass sterilisation?
Making it impossible through medical interventions for members
of communities, other than the one Mungalsingh seems to be
representing, to have children?
Surely, the UNC must be aware that sterilisation of the “unfit”
has been an approach rooted in eugenics, embraced by race
supremacists to advance discredited political doctrines and
outcomes in their societies with particularly horrifying consequences.
Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid was correct when he said: “Senator
Mungalsingh’s comments really hide the horrors that exist
in the hearts of some of the people who seek political power...it
is a very dangerous and frightening prospect for our country.”
The Minister went further: “You sometimes know people
not from what they say, but from what they do not say. What
we did not have happening here is a clear and categorical
condemnation of the statements made by the UNC ... What we
did not hear was clear condemnation which was required.
“Madam President, I fear this former Senator was dismissed
not for what he said, but for the fact that he said it. I
fear that he was dismissed for selling family secrets because
I have seen no evidence that they have no objections to his
prescriptions.
“When you add that statement which is calling for sterilisation
to another statement that says that politics has a morality
of its own, then you understand the danger that this country
is likely to face, the risk the country would run should the
people on that side who aspire to office ever come near.”
Such is Basdeo Panday’s baneful influence on T&T’s
political landscape. Dare we enlarge it further by adding
the divisiveness of proportional representation to our constitutional
arrangements?
e-mail: opm_nsa@tstt.net.tt
