OPPOSITION Senator Jearlean John accused the Government of failing to tackle certain fundamental issues troubling this society, such as a pervasive alienation of thousands of rootless youngsters who were vulnerable to becoming victims or perpetrators of violent crime.
She said unlike past co-operation between former PNM head the late Patrick Manning and UNC head Basdeo Panday, she told the Senate during Thursday's budget debate the Opposition "cannot support Government's plans."
John said the US Government had issued a travel advisory on Trinidad and Tobago, as everyone knew crime was out of control."If crime remains out of control, capital will not come to these shores."She lamented that violent crime was just going on and on, as she lamented the "sheer brutality" of the recent murder of a 15-year-old boy whose body was found stuffed down a latrine.
"What could he have done to be killed?" she asked sadly. John urged, "We have to get to the fundamentals. What's causing people to behave the way they are behaving?"She saw the Government as offering nothing to get at the root of crime committed by young people. Talent, enthusiasm and flair existed all over TT, she said, but not opportunities. She recalled UK opposition leader Keir Starmer recently saying an early intervention could set a life in another direction if only someone stepped in.
Asking what the Government was initiating, she lamented 21-year-olds believed there was nothing to live for and "there was glory dying with a gun in their hand."Scoffing at the motto "One shot, one kill," coined by former police commissioner Gary Griffith, John advised, "We cannot shoot our way out of crime."
Saying the country needed proper statistics such as those to be provided by the long-talked-about National Statistical Institute, she said, "How do we know how many young men are out there running wild? Do they want to do agriculture?"
Complaining of gang-land borderlines, she lamented that residents of lower and upper Duncan Street cannot mingle. Urging an anti-crime plan, John quipped, "We have dollars, but what we need is sense." John criticised the budget, saying price hikes had hit Tobago worse than Trinidad. One person had told her of a bill rising by 40 per cent recently from $440 to $620.
"When the price of fuel goes up by $1 in Port of Spain, it goes up by $5 in Charlotteville.".She said the Government's $1,000 fuel grant was not a gift, and people were really under pressure. If global oil prices rise amid the Government's $1 billion cap on the gasoline subsidy, what will happen, she asked, saying people were not doing well.
John complained of recent remarks by certain government members as being arrogant, looking down on people, and as just talking whatever came to their mouth. She said, "The budget is not a cohesive plan you could wrap yourself around," adding that economist Dr Terrence Farrell had said it was just "pieces of initiatives."John urged improvements to the ease of doing business, including at agencies such as the Registrar General's Of
