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Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar speaks at a media conference after the presentation of the budget on October 13. - Faith AyoungPOLITICAL analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was simply maintaining her long-held position of "TT first", in her opting to not sign a Caricom communiqué calling for the designation of the Caribbean Sea as a zone of peace.
Speaking to Newsday by phone on October 21, Ragoonath said he was not bothered by the potential fallout from the PM's stance. It is speculated that Caricom member states may not support TT's bid for a temporary seat on the UN Security Council owing to the disagreement.
"In terms of Caricom, I feel the PM continues to maintain the position that she had stated way early on that she is putting TT first. And in putting TT first, she is not going to be overly bothered as to having a common Caricom position.
"There is the need for a zone of peace but the fact of the matter is one that says TT is burdened by drugs and crime and murders and those sort of things."
Ragoonath said some Caricom states may also have similar problems, but not to the extent of TT.
"That is compounded by the fact that TT also has to deal with the thousands of Venezuelan refugees in TT, whereas the others in Caricom do not have those sorts of challenges. So TT accepting their own challenges in terms of where they are, I think there is no real concern as to how we are going to deal with it from a Caricom perspective.
"But the PM, to me, has to state a clear case that while Caricom may have a common perspective, the peculiarities as relates to TT have to be taken into consideration. That is where we are."
Ragoonath mulled a scenario where Caricom member states do not support TT's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council.
"If Caricom does not support TT and TT does not get it, well TT does not get it.
"The fact of the matter is that it was never ours to say that we had it, and if we don't get it we don't get it.
"That is neither here nor there.
Ragoonath said if TT got the position, that would raise TT's profile, but said if TT does not get it then that would be "no major loss."
"It is not a loss because we never had it. That is the way I look at it.
"If you have something and you lose something, then yes. But if you never had it and you still don't get it then you have not really lost anything.
"Whether or not Caricom would wish to punish TT for taking its own position, understanding its own peculiarities, well that is up to Caricom.
"In the event Caricom for instance decides they are going to not support TT, the fractures that we have in Caricom at this point in time will become even deeper and wider."
Newsday asked about the PM in her Divali message promising to provide safety to TT, while curbing crime and unemployment, on the heels of the nation spending last weekend on edge due to a US Embassy security alert to US nationals to avoid US offices in TT.
Ragoonath said, "People would have wanted to hear the aspect that the PM has spoke at and reassured the public of the country that there is nothing to be overly concerned about in terms of the security risk, that they are working on it. People were waiting for a statement from the PM and we did get such a statement.
"In that context, yes, we have heard the statement from the PM, people will believe it or not. That is really up to people in general.
"Based on the way they had worded the US advisory and how it came out, I was not overly concerned.
"I thought the US said there was a credible threat but not to TT but to their (US) installations in TT. That was my concern and I said that is how the advisory was worded.
"So I was not overly concerned at that point then. I am still not overly concerned about it, because I think the US has now told all their people to return back to work and everything else."
He said if the US was still concerned about threats, they would have issued more advisories.
"But the mere fact they have told everybody to return back to work means they feel comfortable that the threat is no longer a threat."
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