(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has written a letter to the late Daniel Guerra, telling him his death will lead to a rebirth of the nation of T&T. Persad-Bissessar read out the letter, while addressing a function hosted by the Interclub of T&T in observance of International Women’s Day which will be celebrated on March 8, Carnival Tuesday. She called on the mainly female audience at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, to observe one minute’s silence as a mark of respect for Daniel’s passing. The PM said she believed Daniel’s death was “a rallying call to our nation, it’s a shared moment of collective grief, it holds the potential for becoming a national resolve to participate in a process from which there must be a positive outcome.”
She said she intended to establish the Daniel Decree, “a social agenda” involving all NGOs, the police, the army and Government and the private sector in a partnership to tackle “issues of crime and child neglect and abuse in the myriad forms.” The PM said the Daniel Decree was also an educational programme “through which the public will target specific groups such as children to learn how to better secure and protect themselves and their environments.” She said committees led by Trade and Industry Minister Stephen Cadiz and People and Social Development Minister Glenn Ramadharsingh will be established to implement the Daniel Decree.
Persad-Bissessar listed the key objectives of the initiative:
To create a synergistic relationship among Government, NGO’s, protective services, private sector, media on dealing with critical issues of crime, child neglect and abuse.
To create a powerful interactive educational environment that informs both adults and children on specific ways in which greater protection and responsibility can be ensured.
To identify solutions, short-term and long-term, that address the deeper issues of crime and safety, more secure attitudes and lifestyles.
To identify specially and specifically for children, ways and means of protecting themselves and gaining assistance and resources designed to help them and promote the availability of such resources so that they are familiar to every child.
Persad-Bissessar said she had decided “to take a more hands-on approach to crime-fight initiatives.” She said the details would be given “on another occasion.” Daniel’s body was found in a drain close to Tarouba Extension in San Fernando last week Sunday, three days after he was reported missing. Three autopsies were done on his body —one concluded that his death was by drowning, while the other two said it was caused by “asphyxia, consistent with homicide.”
