THE EDITOR: It appears that our Government has adopted a new refrain whenever citizens voice their opinions on an issue or stage a protest to show their displeasure over services provided, or lack thereof.

That new refrain is: "it's politically motivated."

This may sound like a "get-out-of-jail-free" card, but let me say it certainly is not.

Citizens have been trying to voice their opinions on issues on health care, national security, education, bad roads and others but their voices have been silenced with threats of legal action or by being physically removed as we have seen in the case of Umar Abdullah who was taken away by police when he tried to deliver a letter to the Minister of Education.

Since people have been given a gag order, they have resorted to protest action despite the state of emergency, the curfew and no gathering orders.

The blocking of roads in south Trinidad to protest dilapidated conditions of bridges and roads and inaction to deal with landslips can been seen as a final resort to get the Ministry of Works and Transport to do its job.

However, the response from the Government to these protests is that they were politically motivated. Really?

So to this Government, what is important is who is involved in the protest or who is behind it rather than the unresolved issues which led to the protest in the first place.

I am also not convinced by the Works and Transport Minister saying the bad roads are a result of soil structure. If this was so, then more than half of the country's infrastructure would crumble because of our soil.

WKS HOSEIN

CHAGUANAS

The post 'Politically motivated' - Govt's get out jail card? appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.