PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago would have done herself and her Government a whole lot of good by going public last Tuesday with an apology to Caricom partners for her recent unfortunate and insensitive statements that linked emergency disaster aid to likely benefits to her country.
Without any rhetorical choreography, she declared during Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines: "I do apologise for the statements that have been taken in this regard. I remain committed to regional integration and to our Caricom brothers and sisters."
What she now needs to consider — bearing in mind that her domestic opponents will continue to exploit that careless political stance — is to sensitise Caricom governments to the uncovering of an illegal spying network with the lists of unsuspecting victims reaching the highest political office to ordinary law-abiding citizens.
The reason such an initiative should be considered is not a matter of courtesy but because the national security interests of Trinidad and Tobago's community partners may well have been compromised by the spying epidemic that involved State-funded intelligence agencies.
Let the following account help to inform what went so terribly wrong when illegal spying on law-abiding citizens, pursued under the guise of battling crime and ensuring "national security", got out of control:
If the problem were not as nationally and regionally challenging, a relevant news item last week could have been dismissed as perhaps an error, or a joke.
Some quick checking by this columnist with the Caribbean Community Secretariat in Georgetown and Caricom's Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) made it clear that it was neither an error nor a laughing matter.
The dust had not yet settled on a parliamentary exposure on November I2 about very extensive and intrusive spying activities of State agencies under the previous People's National Movement Government of ex-Prime Minister Patrick Manning, when there came a surprising press release last Monday from the Community Secretariat.
It announced the holding of a five-day training workshop -- which was then currently occurring in Port-of-Sain, involving 20 immigration officers from 11 Caricom countries, in addition to seven law enforcement officers from the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT).
Under normal circumstances, such a news release from the Community Secretariat would simply have been taken as notification of another work programme of IMPACS. This is the agency which was established to serve the security needs of the region when we hosted Cricket World Cup 2007.
However, given the grave implications of the violations of the fundamental rights of citizens across all races, political parties, social classes and professions by the illegal spying network, it was ironic that SAUTT was involved in the so-called 'train-the-trainer' workshop then underway in Port-of-Spain.
Money and arms
Granted, the arrangements for the workshop would have preceded the November 12 statement in Parliament by Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar about the shocking illegal spying operations in which SAUTT was initially involved.
There also came the exposure of even more disturbing illegal activities by an uncovered Secret Intelligence Agency (SIA) that was out of control, with millions of dollars and a quantity of sophisticated weapons at its disposal.
It may perhaps have been too late for either the Caricom Secretariat and/or the Trinidad and Tobago Government to pull the plug on the five-day 'train-the-trainer' workshop at SAUTT's Camuto-based training facilities.
Nevertheless, it's difficult to ignore the insensitivity on the part of those who have collaborated on the training project with SAUTT as a core partner, as if oblivious to the negative image of this State agency now facing a doubtful future.
Unlike the alarming details the people of Trinidad and Tobago and the region in general came to learn by Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar's disclosure of the SIA's illegal spying activities, the public had already been alerted to the disturbing functioning of SAUTT.
For instance, that the six-month-old People's Partnership Government (PPG) of Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar felt compelled, on the basis of controversial reports received, to terminate the services of the former director of SAUTT as well as to significantly overhaul its mode of operations, pending further decision on its future.
The Workshop
This, then, is the same security body that was involved with IMPACS for last week's training programme.
Involved in collaborative efforts for the workshop are CARICAD (Centre for Development and Administration) and DIFID (British Department for International Development).
While SAUTT remains under the microscope with a doubtful future, and the more controversial SIA has been shut down while the Government finalises plans for a structured probe, a formal request is to be made to the director of public prosecutions to pursue actions he deems legally relevant.
There remains, of course, another dimension to the saga of Trinidad and Tobago's "spying politics" in relation to the security interest of Caricom as a whole.
It is simply not easy to accept that the implications of the gross human rights violations involved in the illegal spying politics in Trinidad and Tobago may have been overlooked in relation to their consequences for Caricom partners.
The reality is that whoever is the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago also holds lead responsibility for "crime and security" in Caricom's quasi-cabinet.
That was the case under Patrick Manning's watch during the past five years in particular when the now recognised 'spying epidemic' was spreading with all the negative effects of illegal interceptions of telephone, e-mail and other forms of communication.
In the circumstances, it is felt that Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, who currently shoulders lead responsibility for crime and security in Caricom, has a moral obligation to share as much as possible of the illegal spying activities with her community counterparts.
Question of relevance is: How can a Caricom prime minister, with lead portfolio responsibility for crime and security, be depended upon to be competent and committed in fulfilling his/her mandate, when at home there are a multiplicity of examples involving illegal spying activities that violate the basic rights and dignity of law-abiding nationals?
November 21, 2010
jamaicaobserver
