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Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday made it abundantly clear to Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar that while she was seeking to protect the 12 per cent of the Muslim population, he had to protect an entire nation.
Rowley made the point in Parliament during the Committee Stage of the Anti-Terrorism Bill.
Persad-Bissessar and several Opposition MPs argued that an order by the Minister of National Security to designate geographical areas where there are listed entities engaging in hostile activities in Clause 22 of the bill should come before the National Security Committee for review since people may be affected which the Government objected to.
She said if someone is presumed to be a terrorist fighter it places that person under a burden to clear themselves.
“So there is an adverse effect on a person who should find themselves in this kind of circumstance.
“About 12 per cent of the population is of the Muslim faith. So that per cent of the population may find themselves outside the parameters you have set here…go somewhere and is presumed to be a terrorist fighter,” Persad-Bissessar argued.
Giving his views, Rowley said Persad-Bissessar’s point that a citizen may be deemed to be a terrorist because they went somewhere (a foreign country) that they did not know.
“That runs counter to the letter of what we are trying to do here because for that to happen it means that the areas that would deem to be prohibited would have been done in secret and some person could have gone to that place in that country and not know that there was a designation that that zone was deemed to be an area of conflict. That is not what the law is saying.”
Rowley said for someone to go on vacation or a pilgrim outside of T&T and to return and find out that they are a terrorist was quite misleading.
“That is the kind of conversation that is causing disquiet in our national community because people are twisting what is in the law,” he said.
He said if a place is designated “it would be designated in public.”
He added: “No person can go somewhere and come back and say I am being charged for going to a place that I didn’t know was a place I shouldn’t go. If you go there…there are provisions to determine if you went there innocently or for good reason.”
Rowley said the Opposition’s concerns had no merit.
“Arguing that you are protecting the 12 per cent of the population the Government is protecting 100 per cent of the population which includes that 12 per cent,” the PM said.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said those who were most at risk with the application of the law are the Christian and Muslim Arabs in Trinidad who travel to see their family.
“I notice that we are skewing this debate towards Islam and that is a very dangerous thing because this bill is to treat with terrorism.”
In an effort to protect its citizens, Al-Rawi said one has to take the side of caution.
In taking a vote on Amendment 2 of Clause 22 proposed by the Opposition, the Government voted 21 against with 18 in support by the Opposition. There were no abstentions.
Persad-Bissessar told the T&T Guardian during that tea break that at least three provisions in the bill they will not support.
She said the three provisions are interrelated and would give Al-Rawi untouchable powers. “It’s frightening,” she said.
Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal also suggested that the entire bill be repealed and replaced.