- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 13/Aug 04:35

Army musical chairs

THE MOVE was shocking. Amid a state of emergency, the Commanding Officer of the Regiment, Col Keston Charles, was abruptly sent on 605 days’ leave on August 9. His replacement at Temple Court was, even more shockingly, Lt Col Dwayne Edwards, a choice which, while constrained by staffing issues, vaulted the 13th-highest ranking officer into the top spot. This shake-up by Chief of Defence Staff Darryl Daniel was halted hours after it was publicised. But that is hardly reassuring. The sequence of events that has emerged in articles published by this newspaper this week is dramatically at odds with the notion of the Defence Force as a disciplined and focused entity. Outwardly, that sequence bears the hallmarks of a comedy of errors. Indeed, this is how former national security minister Gary Griffith sees the affair, opining in an interview on August 10 that what took place was likely, “a serious administrative blunder.” However, these developments emerged almost 48 hours after the similarly abrupt sending home of acting Prisons Commissioner Carlos Corraspe on 240 days’ vacation leave. One administrative blunder is an administrative blunder. Two such “blunders” amid a state of emergency premised on threats emanating from the prison estate and in which the army has taken on a heightened role in detaining inmates suggest a pattern. All of it calls for detailed explanation. So far, none has been readily forthcoming. Minister of Defence Wayne Sturge, who, despite recent soundbites about prison cell TVs, does not have oversight of prisons but has responsibility for the regiment, on August 11 listed the splitting of the national security ministry into three as being an early achievement of the UNC’s first 100 days. Yet, there are questions as to the mechanism by which this new arrangement operates and whether it works well. Presumably, as cabinet colleagues, Mr Sturge can co-operate with Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander, who sent Mr Corraspe packing, and Minister of Justice Devesh Maharaj. They may be routinely around the same National Security Council table, chaired by the Prime Minister. That lends credence to the suggestion of a co-ordinated and strategic changing of the guard. But that Ms Persad-Bissessar reportedly called in Mr Sturge in the wake of the army shake-up paints a different picture. None of it bodes well for security stability. The risk of damaging and expensive litigation also looms. That High Court judge Frank Seepersad recently, in 2023 and 2024, provided guidance on army promotions only deepens what is at stake. The regiment, one of the region’s most significant, receives a budget of over $600 million annually and employs thousands. We should not be left with the impression that it is being tinkered with willy-nilly. The post Army musical chairs appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.