Last call for 1990 probe
T&T Guardian Editorial
On this date next year, two decades will have passed since the men of the Jamaat al Muslimeen launched their failed coup attempt against the elected government of Trinidad and Tobago. With a concerted effort and a determined will, today’s government could offer the people of T&T a report, delivered by a commission of enquiry that begins to offer some insight into the events of that dark week in July, 1990.
An investigation into the root causes of the event may serve to inform our understanding of the motivations and context of the incident, and guide future handling of similar issues before they ferment into socially-destructive behaviour. The determined neglect of this troubling time in the nation’s history for so long may well have come with costs we are still to tally.
So many questions related to the July 27th coup attempt remain disturbingly unresolved, and leave the nation with the kind of irritating, lingering pain one experiences from a pebble in a shoe or a splinter just out of sight in the skin. The issues surrounding the national security breaches that made it possible for the Mucurapo Road-based insurgents to arm themselves and take over the Red House and Trinidad and Tobago Television, then the lone television station in the country, after detonating explosives at Police Headquarters, remain unexplored in any satisfactory way. With so little understanding of the national security breaches that allowed this rebel group to arm itself so effortlessly, how can we hope to stem the flow of arms 20 years later?
The role of economics in providing the radical Muslim group with a contingent of eager young recruits, willing to face possible death to realise a poorly-outlined dream, remains unstudied. In 1990, it is commonly known, there was a growing number of young people facing poor prospects in the face of an imploding economy who were disenchanted with their lot and ripe for alternative views of the established methods of governance, particularly in the face of austerity measures introduced by the NAR administration. Nineteen years ago, the balance of power in T&T shifted imperceptibly, as the Police Force, once believed to be the strong right arm of justice, found itself flattened by the sudden appearance of a force with superior arms and stronger motivation.
Was that the point at which criminals realised, that with determination and force, they could change the balance of power in law enforcement in T&T and overwhelm the nation with a legacy of running failures in its national security strategies? There are questions coming out of the coup attempt that may never be fully answered, but the questions should at least be couched in greater knowledge of the incident than has been available for public consumption and comprehension, thus far. Contrast the 19 years of polite silence that has been the legacy of 1990 with the actions of the US Government, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Faced with attacks on their society by enemies targeting areas of weakness, immediate steps were taken to review the vulnerable points of access. The 9/11 Commission began its analysis of the attacks in 2002, delivering its report in 2004.
The document the 9/11 Commission produced has been the subject of both analysis and criticism, but it was a solid effort at putting into the public record everything that was known about the terrorist attacks of September, 2001. That document and the analysis of the 9/11 attack continue to inform security approaches in the US to this day. There is no comparable document available for reference on the 1990 coup attempt, and such a report is, to put it mildly, long overdue. Time is running out for a commission of enquiry. Some of the major players have passed on, and others may be facing flawed recall with advancing age.
Even if there is no clear resolution to be had from proceeding with the inquiry at this late stage, there remains value in putting into the national record the remembrances, recollections and turbulent history of a time we have been too eager to allow to recede into the past. While understanding security issues that are now 19 years old may not bring value to the needs of law enforcement today, those who suffered and those who died during that week of terror deserve to have their story told and understood. The national psyche can only benefit from an open, clear and balanced analysis of the crisis T&T faced on July 27, 1990.
