Public safety initiatives that had been incubating in 2006 during the tenure of Ms Gail Teixeira as minister of Home Affairs slowly metamorphosed into an insufferable incubus by the end of 2007. Implementation of the crime stoppers’ project, citizens’ security programme and national anti-narcotics strategy has been thwarted by indifference and inaction. 2007 will be remembered as a year of lost opportunities and unfulfilled promises. Will 2008 will be better?

Starting his tenure fifteen months ago by incautiously announcing a policy to be “tough on drug lords,” Minister of Home Affairs Mr Clement Rohee’s failure to fully implement the National Drug Strategy Master Plan, arguably, has had the most damaging consequences for national security last year.

Narco-trafficking is the fulcrum for organised crime. It sustains money-laundering, fuel-smuggling, gun-running, graft, kidnapping and people-trafficking. It drives high rates of gun-related crimes, scares the local educated