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Oropuche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal. - File photoOROPOUCHE East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal is demanding a full-scale independent investigation into the “bungling of the Coast Guard” after a boat with human corpses aboard, which a Coast Guard vessel was towing ashore, somehow separated from it and is believed to have sunk off the east coast of Trinidad on January 26.
Speaking at the UNC's cottage meeting at the Chaguanas South Secondary School on the evening of January 27, he said this was a major embarrassment to the “hapless” Rowley government and all of Trinidad and Tobago, especially after an extensive amount of taxpayers' money had been allocated to the Coast Guard.
He said even with two vessels' recent return to full duty, this maritime security agency could not land a drifting vessel with corpses.
“This disaster would deny the authorities the opportunity to effectively co-operate with international agencies to trace the origins of this wandering boat and its occupants,” Moonilal said.
The shadow national security minister said this was not a joking matter, as it could have serious international implications, and hence the need for an international investigation.
“Those men and women on board must have come from somewhere, and the US DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) and Interpol would have an interest.”
He also had choice words for Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds and prime minister-designate Stuart Young, saying this was an indictment of their “pathetic” leadership of that ministry.
Young, the Energy Minister and a Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, was national security minister from August 2018-April 2021.
“Only in TT, under Hinds and Young, could the CG tie a boat and then lose it.”
Tongue-in-cheek, he wondered how this small vessel could survive crossing the Atlantic Ocean along the same route across the Kala Pani (black waters) used by Indian-born indentured labourers – including those on the first ship, the Fatel Razack – only to disappear once in the custody of the Coast Guard.
He questioned where the Coast Guard crew was when the vessel disappeared from sight.
“There were 16 men on board, so what were they doing? Playing all fours downstairs, and then somebody come upstairs and ask where the boat gone?
"This is the only country where a coast guard could lose a boat with dead people in it. You could imagine if it was living people on board?"
Moonilal said whether or not the people on board were involved in illegal activity, the incident spoke to criminal activities.
“The Coast Guard has previously been inept with respect to drug and human trafficking, illegal migration, and illicit importation of contraband goods."
He said the continuous bungling by the Coast Guard was yet another reflection of Hinds’ gross incompetence, which was also on display with the bloody crime crisis even amid a state of emergency.
“The prime minister’s steadfast refusal to dismiss the inept Hinds makes him a direct accessory to the failure of national security agencies and incidents such as the Coast Guard’s latest botch,” Moonilal added.
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