- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 27/Jul 06:21

1990’s long shadow

WHEN HE addressed the country on the first day of the state of emergency, Attorney General John Jeremie remarked of the threat to the state: “We have a duty to all the people of Trinidad and Tobago, whether they voted for us or not, to keep them safe and to protect against precisely that which took place in 1990.” Today, July 27, marks exactly 35 years since the events to which Mr Jeremie referred: the attempted coup by the Jamaat al Muslimeen. As if by eerie coincidence, MPs will tomorrow gather in Parliament, the epicentre of that attack, to debate the emergency. That they will do so is at once a hopeful sign of progress and a disturbing reminder that these historic moments are connected. In the nightmare that was 1990, the terrorists bombed police headquarters, stormed the Red House and overran TTT and Radio Trinidad. They held hostages at all three locations. Prime Minister ANR Robinson was shot in the leg. At least 24 people were killed. Long is the shadow of these harrowing occurrences; deep are the scars. Yet, there is already a generation that has grown up without recollection. History forgotten is doomed to be repeated and must be properly and consistently commemorated. More so because the catastrophe that was 1990 is, in fact, ongoing. Crime and punishment – the fundamental connection between the two was severed by the coup. The biggest finding of the years-long inquiry into 1990, the Sir David Simmons Enquiry, which was convened under the first Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration in 2010, was that “burgeoning crime and the changing nature of contemporary lawlessness in Trinidad and Tobago have their origins in the events of 1990 and the aftermath thereof.” To study murder and kidnapping rates in the years since 1990 is to find little evidence that contradicts this. Yasin Abu Bakr, who led the coup, died in 2021 having never been convicted. Bungled was the question of a purported amnesty; damaged was the deterrent effect of the justice system; raised was the idea of impunity. Even when some criminals are jailed today, appalling conditions breed recidivism. Extremism lingers. Sir David’s report has been criticised and sidelined. It relied on politicians for implementing recommendations. It was costly. It was published late. Yet, a report is preferable to no report. And it remains relevant. In 2024, then PM Dr Rowley alleged, in terms that evoked comparisons to 1990, the existence of a “cult which was arming itself” within intelligence. If crime has been transformed, so too has politics with its broad nexus of intersections. For, no government has escaped the coup’s legacy of an intractably dangerous and dysfunctional criminal environment, as shown dramatically by the latest state of emergency. The post 1990’s long shadow appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.