It came as a surprise to me when I heard ministers Stuart Young and Maxie Cuffie making the announcement last week that the UNC government never came up with the necessary legislation to allow the families of slain police officers to be compensated the $1 million promised to them by Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Ironically, she’s now making demands on the present government to “pay up,” what she had all the time to do.
While I have no objections to these bereaved family members being compensated, I have strong objections to them being paid by the Government, any government. This should be the duty or responsibility of the insurance companies, not the tax-payer.
This is just another thoughtless idea, which came by “vaps,” out of the mouth of Mrs Persad-Bissessar, during her five consecutive years of campaigning while in government.
The Prime Minister was heard in parliament last week and again at a meeting at Malabar on Tuesday night, promising to honour this pledge. I hope that he’d be strongly advised against this move by the Cabinet and not be allowed to (once again) buckle under any kind of pressure from the Opposition, the Police Welfare Association’s head, Inspector Ramesar or any mouthpiece of the UNC.
The UNC was known to set a number of bad precedents over the five years they were in office, in the name of politically expediency, and this is just one of them. We are now hearing all the other arms of National Security, making the same claims that they were also included in this form of financial benefit plan. This was bound to happen and maybe this is so because they’ve realised that somehow, the Government easily bows to the slightest pressure applied to them.
There should be insurance coverage for all police officers, fire officers, prisons officers and soldiers because their jobs require high risks situations. So when you compensate one, you will have to eventually compensate the rest when they also make their demands.
Ordinary law abiding citizens are killed almost every day and much more regularly than police officers and they also leave grieving family members behind as well. What about their compensation? What about innocent citizens who are killed by “on duty” police officers, under questionable circumstances and whose grieving relatives are still awaiting the outcomes of those “enquiries” years after? What about their compensation?
My suggestion is hardly likely to be considered, but I am asking the PM and the Government/Cabinet, to seriously reconsider this thoughtless idea of the former prime minister, as “good” as it may sound.
That’s what insurance companies are there for. That’s why their clients pay them millions of dollars monthly and annually. Let them “reward” the families.
Garvin Walters