By Raffique Shah
January 18, 2025

I do not think that I carry the proverbial “blight” that people who when they speak or merely mention something good that’s happening, it turns sour. Still, I do not feel as confident as I ought to be commenting on the respite the nation has enjoyed in the murder rate that was dizzying, bloody, almost macabre. Hours before Prime Minister Dr Rowley advised the President to declare a state of emergency, the murder rate was astounding, taking this country into a bloodbath that was horrible even to think about.

I think it was 48 hours before the declaration when, in what was thought to be a gang-related incident, people were shot outside a police station in Port of Spain. That was in one incident and it was done with such impunity that if the Government and the police had failed to respond equally, chances are the country would have gone the Haiti or Latin American route with respect to murders.

Haiti…which has been such a disgrace in terms of what it should have been as one of the first politically free countries in the West. Its governance has imploded repeatedly. Today it is a dystopian society, put mildly, but in fact it’s an absolute wreck run by criminal gangs.

El Salvador was headed the Haiti way, but was rescued by a determined President Nayib Bukele who used an SoE to imprison thousands of suspected gang members where they would, as he put it, “no longer be able to harm the population”. This could imply death without trial for criminals.

I am not a supporter of extra-judicial justice, which is an oxymoron just writing it here. But like millions of left-leaning political activists worldwide, as I watch the savagery of our criminals rise to horrendous levels, I switch to turning a blind eye to such forms of justice when known criminals kill the innocent, and I feel at ease with my conscience.

By the time our PM and his Cabinet colleagues were shocked into action, using virtually the last-resort weapon in their arsenal of crime-fighting measures, the SoE, I had almost joined the ranks of people I neither support nor care about how they feel—the very same people who are part of the problem, not the solution. If a few criminals sneeze too hard in certain districts, they would call for martial law.

I recall, though, it was at the beginning of 2024 that I wrote a column in which I found myself agreeing with the need for an SoE. In my notes on it, I highlighted the declaration and implementation that must include a list of murderers and would-be murderers who were tearing this country apart. I knew it was tough for the police to gather evidence that made arrests easy. However, consider the number of years they have told the public that they know all the gangs and their members: they know the hundreds of gangs, thousands of gangsters ranking from recruit to commodores, where they live and how they conduct the affairs of their criminal empires.

The PM did not agree with the now-increasing voices shouting for the police to come down heavy on all criminals. With the end of the year approaching and the murders completely out of control, he was forced into doing the only thing he could do—the SoE. For the first time in about a decade, the police showed the public that they could be relied on. They quietly arrested scores of suspects and they say they are feverishly trying to gather all the evidence they could to make the cases successful. Nothing less would suffice.

As my personal war machinery shuffled into action (well, approaching 80 with Parkinson’s, I can’t exactly sprint), I waited to see if these beasts would reassert their hold anywhere in the country. Hell, Tobago has been turned from a peaceful holiday island to a now scary country. With the end of January fast approaching, I am apprehensive of how this will pan out.

While murders continue to occur, they are fewer than last year, but these fools can always switch back to hype the killings on a night out on the town. I wish there would be no murders for this year, but that would be fooling myself.

What I would appeal to Government to do, and the police and other forces of law and order, is to keep their vigilance and their resolve—they have worked favourably so far. More important for me, though, is what the majority in the population feel about the SoE’s impact on crime generally, but especially on murders.

That this battle between the forces of law and order and the criminal elements has intensified in a general election year is not a healthy cocktail. It calls for a dynamic leader. Enter PM-designate Stuart Young. We shall see.