Manning as executive president

In his feature address at a conference on October 29 in the San Fernando East constituency, he said that TT had evolved from internal self-government to independence, then to republicanism. The next logical step, he said, is an executive presidency — with guess who as president. This announcement was greeted by tassa drummers and moko jumbies. Luckily he realises that a change in the Constitution would be necessary, and he asked the PNM to rally its forces to ensure the required majority in parliament, to bring it about. But who among us, apart from the odd tassa drummer or moko jumbie, wants Mr Manning as executive president? Personally, I am quite happy with the checks and balances of the parliamentary system, which has served Britain well since Magna Carta in 1216.

While on the subject of Mr Manning and the ideas that spring, fully armed, from his head like Athena from the head of Zeus, there are one or two that have not received sufficient comment in the press.

There is his determination to tear down the Prime Minister’s residence to the ground as unfit for human habitation. Has this been approved by parliament? Shouldn’t the house in which Dr Williams lived and died be preserved for the nation, and even opened to visitors once Mr Manning has moved into the executive president’s house, with its oval office and rose garden? Does Mr Manning really intend to spend $40 million of taxpayers’ money on rebuilding a suitable PM’s house, while knowing the conditions so many of his supporters live in?

Does he also really intend to spend $850 million of taxpayers’ money on a mega-stadium at Tarouba for a few cricket matches to be played in, when the nation is already suffering from a surfeit of unused stadiums?

He might reply that it is oil money he will be using, not revenue from the people. In the same address he praised his own handling of the economy. Even I could write a budget with the millions flowing in from oil.

Let us take heart from his final flourish in that speech: "I am the only and indispensable leader of the PNM."

A word of advice: Call a snap election now, Mr PM, while Mr Panday refuses to ride away into the sunset. The executive presidency may be within your grasp.

ROLAND QUESNEL

Port-of-Spain