THE EDITOR: Dr Rowley’s address at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly is an indisputable admission of his failure as prime minister of TT. His speech indicated without a doubt that he does not accept the obligations that come with being a leader of a country. He just couldn’t care less.
The Prime Minister stood on a global stage and blithely announced to the world that last year there were more than 600 murders in the country under his stewardship, and that there have already been more than 400 for this year.
His blase account of the brutal killing of citizens insinuates that the problem is not his. Onlookers would believe that he was simply reporting the weather – he was so indifferent. He was not even concerned that he was in fact giving an assessment of his own performance and that he graded himself as “fail.”
With absolute nonchalance, Rowley blamed the high murder rate on the manufacture and distribution of guns by other countries. He will not acknowledge that the guns do not walk, swim, or drop from the sky into TT. They enter unimpeded because there is no patrolling of our borders. Our unprotected open borders invite illegal guns and criminals, and facilitate a seamless drug trade. We announce to the world: Come! No passport required; no visa required!
Rowley conveniently forgot to mention that he refuses to equip the ports with scanners to detect the infiltration of arms and ammunition. He did not say that his administration has starved the police of basic resources to combat crime.
Without batting an eyelid, the Prime Minister reported that four children were murdered in a single shooting incident. World leaders must have been bewildered by his impassive account of murders of citizens of his country, and the ease with which he took himself out of the equation. They must have wondered how this guy, who blames everybody for everything, was elected as prime minister of a country.
So, Rowley, in case no one told you, the buck stops with you. You are ultimately responsible for the sorry state of our country. You have destroyed TT in record time, and you announced it to the entire world. In a private enterprise you would have already been fired. But I hear people saying this is PNM country. Apparently the PNM can literally get away with murder.
JASODRA RAMPERSAD
via e-mail