For the past two days we've had coverage of the very disturbing incident where former Prime Minister Said Musa's home was shot up. It is one of the most troubling incidents we've reported on - but what also troubled Jules Vasquez was the blatant politicization of a truly unfortunate event.
In what we'll term as a sort of commentary, he looks more closely and the narrative of this shooting and the raging political undercurrents behind it:..
Rt. Hon. Said Musa
"It was a close call if you like."
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Leader of the Opposition
"We view any personal attack or act of violence against the Rt. Hon. Sad Musa and his family as an attack against the People's United Party family."
Jules Vasquez reporting
That is perhaps as it should be - but it seems yesterday's event was also to try and change the narrative somewhat:
Rt. Hon. Said Musa
"When person or persons will feel it easy to just pull out a gun and start firing shots at a house knowing that there are people inside, knowing who is inside - because when they believe that can go after the former Prime Minister of this country - then they also believe they can go after the Prime Minister of this country and the Governor General of this country and the Leader of the opposition."
But was it random targeting of a public official? Wasn't there a specific threat? as Musa himself conceded:
Rt. Hon. Said Musa
"It is a fact that threatening phone calls were made at my wife's workplace at BCVI, threatening to harm or kill her and myself. And there were 4 or 5 calls, at least 2 to BCVI, and subsequently some to my law firm, Musa and Balderamos."
Marion Ali - Love News
"Did those threats come, sir, with any reason?"
Rt. Hon. Said Musa
"This is it, no reasons, just threats, 'Tell the man give us the paper, otherwise I will kill Musa and his wife.'"
Jules Vasquez
"But it indicates lawyer-type activities?"
Rt. Hon. Said Musa
"No, no, I wouldn't say that. I am told that the 'paper' on the street means money, cash. but Christmas came and went, and that sort of died off. We didn't receive any further threats until this incident now that took place last night."
But, to hear it yesterday, Wednesday night could have been any night, to anyone anywhere as this personal threat has been conflated with a general threat of public terror.
Hon. John Briceno
"Criminals feel that they can go after somebody like himself; a former Prime Minister, that means that each and every one of us is vulnerable"
Rt. Hon. Said Musa
"This is not really about Said Musa, this is really about the dis-functionality that is taking place in our country"
Now, it's a fairly pronounced line between having legitimate concerns for one man's personal security and ramping things up to create a sense of siege - but that line is now blurred - and after a year that saw 145 murders, we're not sure if playing into public panic can still have the desired effect.
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