T&T on the front line of war on global terror and our foreign policy blissfully unmindful

Trinidad and Tobago has, on a per capita basis, more fighters on the front-line of global terror than any country in the Commonwealth or from the Western hemisphere and neither our foreign policy, nor our anti-crime efforts, nor our priorities reflect this reality.

This third world war will be cultural and not between nation states says Samuel Huntington in the “Clash of Civilizations”. In this version between fundamental Islam as represented by ISIS and western democracies, our country is unofficially on the front-line, says Rodney Charles, Naparima MP, former UN ambassador and UNC MP charged with monitoring the foreign ministry.

Newspaper reports, as yet unchallenged, indicate that upwards of 89 TT nationals are fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). With a population of 1.3 million, this means the UK, with 64.1 million, would need to have over 4,400 fighters in Syria to have the same level of involvement as us.

But a BBC report dated 24th March, identified only “800 people from the UK who have travelled to support jihadist organizations in Syria and Iraq. ”
Proportionately TT has almost 50 times the number of active fighters on the front-line of global terror than the UK.

Our PNM government, ostrich like, has no coherent policy to confront this reality hoping that the problem will go away.

But it will not since these home grown jihadists on their return from Syria will have more active combat experience than any soldier or Brigadier in our army.

When former PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar last year co-sponsored the UN resolution aimed at tackling global terrorism, Dr Rowley vehemently objected.
According to a Monday October 6 report in the Trinidad Guardian, Rowley warned that the then “PP government has put the lives of citizens, including those abroad, at a greater risk by co-sponsoring a UN resolution against global terrorism.”

Unknowing to him we were active on the front-lines.

This explains our relative inaction despite having citizens in US prisons for attempting to blowup JFK airport. We have had a 1990 attempted coup by Islamic fundamentalists. We have citizens jailed in Venezuela on allegations of links to jihadism. We have reports of Islamists in Cunupia acting up causing havoc, mayhem, gang warfare and lives lost. Now if you ask the family of Nekeisa Teesdale of Embacadere in San Fernando, we have increasingly common barbaric acts of criminal beheadings – one of the trademarks of ISIS.

Is this evidence of the long arm of ISIS on our shores?

Four ambassadors have been appointed by this administration – at the UN, Cuba, Jamaica and Brazil. Not one of these has responsibility for the Middle East which includes Iraq and Syria where we are unofficially at war.

We do not have a sitting High Commissioner in London who can interface with agencies in the UK (and in Brussels and France) active on the war on terror.

Where is the urgent response from the Education Ministry to intervene in our education system to make our youth less susceptible to the social media influences of jihadists? Where is our 21st century equivalent of Wilfred D. Best’s “Students’ Companion” which endeavored to inculcate in generations past lessons in civics and patriotism.

Where is the bringing together of members of our Syrian and Muslim communities to help us craft counter messages and strategies to those of ISIS? Both are law abiding, progressive, hardworking and peaceful members of our country anxious, I am sure, to bring their unique knowledge, strengths and perspectives to bear on this challenge.

These 89 citizens did not wake up one morning and end up in Syria. They were actively recruited and financed possibly by social media. Who monitors what ISIS is telling our youth and how does this knowledge inform our policies.

Prior to September 2015 the PNM told us they were red and ready. This readiness is clearly not apparent in the handling of our foreign policy especially as it relates to our war on terror.