Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Mar­vin Gon­za­les is ques­tion­ing whether the Gov­ern­ment de­lib­er­ate­ly al­lowed the col­lapse of the pro­posed ZOSO leg­is­la­tion so it could lat­er use its de­feat as an ex­cuse for fail­ing to curb ris­ing crime.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing at the Of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader on Charles Street, Port of Spain, on Wednes­day, Gon­za­les sug­gest­ed that the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the bill’s fail­ure raise se­ri­ous con­cerns.

“It leaves one to won­der whether the Gov­ern­ment in­tend­ed for the ZOSO bill to fail from the on­set so that they can use its fail­ure to jus­ti­fy its in­abil­i­ty to solve crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go. I say it again, it leaves the rea­son­able mind to won­der whether the Gov­ern­ment in­tend­ed the fail­ure, the de­lib­er­ate fail­ure of the ZOSO bill, so that they can use this as some ex­cuse, their ex­cuse, to not con­tain crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Gon­za­les said.