Dear Editor,

An opinion poll currently being conducted by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association on a host of current issues has found overwhelmingly support for constitutional reform. However, the nation does not have much confidence there will be any significant change to the constitution believing politicians will not want to reduce their controlling power over the population.

Citizens view the present crime wave as the leading problem facing the nation and are losing confidence in the coalition government’s ability to rein it in. The nation is disenchanted with the performance of the Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan not only for failing to bring down the crime level, but seeming, what they say, clueless on how to proceed with concrete initiatives to tackle crime. They say the broad strategic suggestions passed on to him by President Granger and his advisors are long term measures and people are looking for immediate relief from the spike in crime.

And although fully supportive of the Government’s position on the border conflict with Venezuela, respondents are dissatisfied with its handling of what many describe as the “rice crisis” with the neighboring country saying a lack of market for rice will drive rice farmers into bankruptcy and bring enormous hardship to the country. They believe the Government might have been too intemperate with its response to President Maduro.

Just as significantly, farmers have virtually no confidence in Noel Holder as Minister of Agriculture viewing him as “unfit” for job, and they do not feel he will be able to transform the agricultural sector to boost economic growth. His appointment came as a complete surprise to all and they note that he himself said he knows “nothing about rice except to consume it”.

Almost everyone interviewed in the latest NACTA poll says crime is the number one issue facing the country followed by the economy and unemployment.

Also, almost everyone supports constitutional reform and feels it should be urgently undertaken. However, they are not hopeful the constitution will be replaced or that there will be any meaningful changes to reduce the powers of the President or other officer holders or to institutionalise power sharing among the parties.

With regards to crime, respondents say although former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had/has low likeability rating and feel he did a very poor job on handling crime and overall, as Home Affairs Minister, his performance in that Ministry was better so far than that of his Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan. Many commented that Ramjattan is presiding over the shell of a Ministry and seems to have limited powers to effect significant change to make people feel safe.

Supporters of the opposition PPP and most in the business community say the National Security Minister’s job is being undermined by Advisors to the President, and perhaps not coincidentally they feel the Minister has not been pro-active enough in crime fighting measures. They are supportive of his “curfew” on bars, but they want drastic actions against criminals.

Findings of other queries of the survey will be released in a subsequent report.

Sincerely,

Vishnu Bisram