Prime Minister comments on Tower Hill riots
While Prime Minister Said Musa was on hand to lend his support to the N.H.I. Project, we also took the opportunity to solicit his views on last week’s turmoil in Orange Walk.
Jacqueline Woods
“What do you believe could have been done to avert the violence there?”
Prime Minister Said Musa
“Well whatever I say of course is with twenty-twenty hindsight and there are many experts who can do things with looking back after the event. Having said that, clearly the basic premise here is that you should know where the blame is. You cannot blame innocent passengers on a bus or commuters, for somebody who is violating the law. They should not be inconvenienced as a result of somebody carrying out a bus run when he does not have a permit for it. So I think that is the basic root of the problem right there. If Mr. Tillett was conducting a run for which he was not authorised, then they should have gone after Mister Tillett at his place of business and take him to court. I don’t believe you should stop people on the road and cause this great inconvenience to people. Especially an inconvenience that lasted almost a whole day in sun hot. One can see how people get riled up and it’s understandable what happened in terms of emotions and passions flaring up, to me that is the root of the problem. From there things fell apart.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Were you concerned about the way the authorities handled the situation or do you believe they were right in what they had done?”
Prime Minister Said Musa
“No, I am very concerned and I want to ensure it does not happen again. Clearly, the authorities have to maintain the rule of law, otherwise we will have anarchy, chaos. But there are ways of avoiding these things happening by going to the root of the problem. If any bus owner commits an offence, whether its driving too fast, abusing passengers, or whether its on a run he should nor be on, go after the owner go after that owner at his place of business. That is why we have a court system. Take them to court and they will soon realise that you can’t continue to violate the law, but do not inconvenienced innocent passengers.”
The Prime Minister’s conciliatory take on the situation differs greatly from that of Transport Minister Henry Canton, as well as the heads of the police and B.D.F. National Security Minister Jorge Espat has yet to meet the press on this issue.
