Danger of dictatorship if opposition leader stays

THE EDITOR: In democratic societies, especially those that imitate the Westminster Parliamentary System, the roles of the Leader of Opposition and the media are of vital significance. This is particularly the case when the party in Government is also in control of all the other elected institutions as the municipal corporations and the Tobago House of Assembly.

In our system the Leader of the Opposition is an official appointment enshrined in the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution. This office is not only accountable to the opposition party, but to the entire country. All recent polls have anteceded that the population is dissatisfied with the leader of the opposition and it raises the question whether the other opposition MPS, who appear to support the opposition leader are doing justice to their constituencies. Further allegations of corruption have been made against the opposition leader, which could adversely affect MPs of the opposition as well as the entire opposition party. It has become blatantly obvious that the citizens are not receiving value for State funds disbursed to the leader of the opposition as there is no de facto parliamentary opposition to Government and as such the government party does whatever it wants. This is an extremely dangerous threat to our democracy and to the entire society.

The leader of the opposition has squandered the opportunity given to him and is totally responsible for his present predicament:
1) He calls party elections and refuses to abide by the will of the party and accept the results. 2) There is an 18-18 result in the 2001 election with his party having the majority of votes cast and he misguidedly asks the President with whom he is at variance to appoint a PM. What stupidity for a person who is regarded to be an astute politician and lawyer! 3) A leader must be capable of leading and not continuously be under the shadow of his uninformed spouse. 4) With such a record the honourable thing to do is to walk in the shadow of twilight before the darkness engulfs him. Should the leader of the opposition not pursue the honourable course then the 15 MPs should write the President on behalf of their constituencies stating that they no longer have confidence in the opposition leader. If the leader of the opposition persists and continues to remain in office, Trinidad and Tobago will end up as a virtual dictatorship and persons of an alternative views will languish forever in the wilderness.

WILLIAM A DALTON-BROWN
Port-of-Spain.