By the end of January, with murders recorded at the rate of more than one a day, prospects look doubtful at best for a year marking real advance against crime. Yet this was to be the year of the definitive turnaround, following upon not only the State of Emergency crackdown and cool-down, but also a renewed sense of purpose, energy and direction by the law enforcers and social action by other authorities.

This at any rate is what Trinidad and Tobago had been asked to believe. Speaking last August, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar advertised her own iron-fisted resolve: "For some,'' she said, "the long arm of the law is our best course of action. And for those bent on remaining in a life of criminality we will take them out in one way or the other.''

The Prime Minister was speaking at the start of the emergency, at a time when the security forces were flexing muscle and showing rare proactive vigour in an anti-crime offensive. Toward the end of the Emergency, the focus turned to the social and economic factors seen to be enabling crime.

Expanding upon this latter aspect, Mrs Persad-Bissessar said: "Ours is a balanced approach… The issue of crime is a complex one which has to be addressed in new innovative ways and through practical solutions across a range of well thought out programmes and policies.''

An inquiry probing the roots of urban lawlessness marked one approach toward clarifying the problems and devising solutions. A $300 million programme was aimed at income and job creation inside the "hot spot'' communities.

Murders highlighting crime reports in January, however, confirmed that no quick fixes had taken effect. Indeed, as Opposition MPs at Friday's sitting denounced past, present and future government initiatives, the administration might even have appeared on the defensive.

The PNM opposition accused the Government of "systematically dismantling'' the national security system it had left in place, without replacement of anything demonstrably superior in effectiveness. The exchanges veered off in the direction of another procurement question, concerning rental of a light aircraft for police crime surveillance.

In both matters, the administration was found wanting in respect of transparency. For despite piecemeal suggestions, it has announced no overarching crime plan in which operating elements of a "national security system'' can be recognised. Again, the procurement regime, under which plans to lease an aircraft might have routinely come to public knowledge, remains in abeyance.

Such deficiencies are noted not only by the political opposition. The T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce, for example, criticised the glaring absence of a "full comprehensive crime plan with stated time-frames for implementation and expected outcomes.'' For such a plan, indeed, both inside and out of Parliament, patience is running out.