“A waste of $60,000 a month”; PNM deputy leader slams Alexander’s ZOSO remarks

People’s National Movement (PNM) deputy political leader Sanjiv Boodhu has condemned Government Senator Phillip Alexander for suggesting that the two year old child killed this morning in Belmont would still be alive had the proposed Zones of Special Operations (ZOSO) legislation been in force. 

Boodhu slammed Alexander’s comments as “divisive, inept, racist and disrespectful,” accusing the Government senator of exploiting a national tragedy to score political points and defend the controversial legislation which was defeated in the Senate earlier this year. 

The criticism came after Alexander issued a fiery statement following the killings in Belmont, blaming what he called “bad politics” in PNM-held communities for the violence. 

“That two-year-old would be alive right now if Belmont was under a ZOSO and in the control of law enforcement and the army with Social Development reinventing lives to prosperity and peace,” Alexander wrote. 

Alexander argued that Belmont reflected what happens when communities are overtaken by gangs, drugs and underdevelopment, claiming that a ZOSO would have transformed the area and reduced criminal influence. 

“A ZOSO in Belmont would have transformed that community back to functional but would have robbed the drug lords financing the PNM of their cheap, expendable labour,” he stated. 

The ZOSO legislation sought to empower the Prime Minister to designate high crime areas for intensive joint military police cordons. 

The bill was ultimately defeated due to a failure to secure the required special parliamentary majority, as the opposition and independents raised significant concerns regarding potential human rights infringements and the broad discretionary powers granted to the executive. 

Meanwhile Alexander also criticised the independent bench in the Senate for rejecting the legislation, saying they “had a chance to help fix this and went the other way.” 

But Boodhu accused Alexander of making reckless and inflammatory remarks while ignoring that the country is already under emergency security measures. 

“The entire country is under a State of Emergency, including Belmont,” Boodhu said in a statement. 

He pointed to recent statements from Defence Minister Wayne Sturge that the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force had already moved to an “elevated operational posture” to support the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service during the ongoing State of Emergency (SoE). 

Boodhu also argued that the Government already possesses the authority and state resources Alexander claimed would only come through a ZOSO. 

“The Minister of Social Development was sworn in on 03 May 2025, some 12 months ago and since then, her responsibility includes providing support for the people of Belmont, just like every other part of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said. 

Boodhu questioned whether Alexander’s comments amounted to an admission that the SoE had failed to improve public safety despite the suspension of certain constitutional rights. 

“I would ask whether his rant this morning is an admission that the SOE is nothing but a naked suspension of constitutional rights, and has no strategy, planning, Defence Force support, and is not intended to be used at all, to enhance the safety and security of citizens,” Boodhu said. 

He further suggested that if the SoE was ineffective, it raised concerns about whether the measure was instead being used “to threaten or achieve the suppression of dissenting or protestant voices.” 

Boodhu ended his statement by dismissing Alexander as “an embarrassment to our country,” adding, “What a waste of the citizens’ money on a $60,000 a month salary.”