Though a rise in gang-re­lat­ed in­ci­dents was deemed the main rea­son be­hind the lat­est State of Emer­gency (SoE) im­posed on March 3, Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry Roger Alexan­der has re­fused to re­veal how many per­sons have been charged un­der the An­ti-Gang Act since the procla­ma­tion of the SoE, lead­ing the Op­po­si­tion bench to ac­cuse him of “hid­ing be­hind” stand­ing or­ders.

When asked about this and whether any­one has been charged in re­la­tion to the al­leged plot to mur­der se­nior law en­force­ment of­fi­cers, Alexan­der used his par­lia­men­tary pow­ers yes­ter­day to in­voke Stand­ing Or­der 28 (3).

This stand­ing or­der states a min­is­ter may de­cline to an­swer a ques­tion if, in his opin­ion, the pub­li­ca­tion of the an­swer would be con­trary to the pub­lic in­ter­est.