(Trinidad Express) 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 Branch—whose job is to secure the periphery of the building from any frontal attack on days of sitting—did 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 servants—that 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.
