COUNTRY IN CRISIS
Beckles urges Govt to settle police wage dispute
By Ria Taitt Political Editor
Story Created: Feb 15, 2011 at 10:53 PM ECT
Story Updated: Feb 15, 2011 at 10:53 PM ECT
For the first time since the 1990 coup attempt, a heavily armed contingent of soldiers were yesterday called upon to defend the Parliament.
The nation's seat of democracy yesterday joined the list of important institutions to be affected by the police sickout, as the Guard and Emergency Branchâ€â€Âwhose job is to secure the periphery of the building from any frontal attack on days of sittingâ€â€Âdid not show up. The Police GEB unit has consistently provided back-up support for the building since 1990.
The GEB supplements the security provided by the Parliament Police Post on days when there is a sitting of the Parliament. The Parliament Police are not part of the regular police force, but are SRPs paid for by the Parliament. They safeguard documents and look after the internal security of the building. However, the security of the building from attack from the outer precincts is the responsibility of the GEB. Only 25 of a unit of 51 GEB officers reported for work yesterday.
Yesterday as the Senate met, People's National Movement Senator Pennelope Beckles-Robinson-Robinson said the nation was in crisis and urged Government to take action.
"When police officers do not go to the Prime Minister's residence, when they do not go to the Attorney General's home for the purposes of doing their duty and ensuring that persons who are at the highest echelons in our society are not protected, we know that our society is in crisis," she said.
"When people read that police sickout affects the President, the Prime Minister and the Attorney General, they probably wonder what is really going on in Trinidad and Tobago. It is total chaos."
Beckles-Robinson was speaking during the debate on the Statutory Authorities Amendment bill. The bill was piloted by Finance Minister Winston Dookeran, who explained that it would give to public servants working in the Statutory Authorities the same entitlement of other public servantsâ€â€Âthat is, if they die while still employed, their next of kin would receive one month's salary. Noting that this anomaly has existed since the 1950s, Dookeran said Government was acting out of compassion to address this inequity.
However, Beckles-Robinson, while supporting the measure, called on Government to resolve the issue with the police.
"If we don't do that everything is going to continue to be in chaos. We have a situation where no prisoners are going to court... where people are going to the court and are paying for police officers to go to fetes. And now you are having fetes and it is almost a free-for-all because there are no police officers."
She called on Dookeran, who is in a position to know what the state of the Treasury is, as well as what challenges the Government faces, to sit down and have a meeting with all the relevant parties so that all efforts could be made for Trinidad and Tobago to get back to normal.
"At present, the impression that is being created by this Government is that it has no compassion for the public servant and the police service. I saw a quotation in the (Sunday) Express that disturbed me, because I don't know that the Minister of National Security is one who would call officers 'lazy ones and slackers'. If this Government is talking about compassion, I do not know that if you refer to police officers as 'lazy ones and slackers' that that is going to motivate them, I don't know that that is compassion," she said.
"We have a situation where over the last couple of days on every talk-show, Trinidadians and Tobagonians seem to want to take the law into their own hands and to justify this whole concept of vigilante (action). And it is a debate that is going to be very emotional, because when anyone comes into our home and kills a wife, a husband, a child, a grandmother... people are tempted to take the law into their own hands, especially if when they call the police, the police have not come out to duty, they are not there in the station, they are not willing and people wait for hours.
"The chances are that what happened a couple of days ago (in Barrackpore), where a whole village went and decided 'we will take the law into our own hands', if we don't remedy the situation, that (what happened in Barrackpore) is going to become the situation in Trinidad and Tobago, which none of us in this Parliament would like. I urge the Government... please let us find a way to deal with the issues relating to the police officers. It may even be very easy for people to say that those who are staying away from work are very unpatriotic... and to say it is a 'handful of delinquents', but... it is the impact that it is having on the society".
Beckles-Robinson said the compassion Government was showing in treating with one of the ills of the past, should also be shown for the public servant of this present time.
Public Administration Minister Nan Ramgoolam said Beckles-Robinson should not confuse the normal negotiations done every three years between Government and public servant with the legislation being debated. They were two separate things, she said. She added that given the size of the pie, any responsible Government must take the entire national community into consideration.
"The Minister of Finance is looking for the best fit line where we may not be very happy but we would all be a bit comfortable and life would be comfortable," she said.
Public Utilities Minister Emmanuel George lamented that Beckles-Robinson did not show this concern for public officers when the PNM was in office and public servants were marching.
"I didn't hear her calling on her Government to do anything about it," he said.
