First priority is constitution reform

THE EDITOR: There is a lot of hope in TT that 2004 will be a better year than 2003, but the manifestation of that hope depends on many factors bearing truth and reality. For starters, we began the new year with the old problem of a tit-for-tat two party system based on tribalism that has divided the country and destroyed civil society’s sense of reason and objective balance. There are many wonderful Trinbagonians in our society who live in the real world with a genuine heart and a spirit of true love, sharing with the less fortunate in and out of the Christmas season. Christmas, however, may not be what it used to be in the past but it does have a new and outstanding feature today — teaching us how to live with hypocrisy. I closed the year 2003 reading for the second time a piece written by Newsday’s columnist Marion O’Callaghan under the caption “Listening to Giuliani and waiting for the Messiah.”

It is a unique story about a poor and very unfortunate Jew who some Rabbis gave a job just to sit at the Messiah’s gate and rouse them all up when the Messiah comes. It was a job the poor man could never lose. I found the article to be very instructive, reminding me of people who indulge in wishful thinking, spinning top in mud, waiting for the Messiah — or is it the year 2020 — while everything else is falling down except crime statistics. This brings me to Captain Gary Griffith’s statement on a radio talk show programme in November last, that “crime is a product of opportunity.” (I understand the captain is an expert on crime.) Well, for the past twelve months in my letters to the Editor, I have stated that criminals are opportunists who seize every opportunity, as they are doing with the racial division in our society. Yet, civil society is locked in the politics of division, marching all over the country for all kinds of cases except national unity that is so vital to the social, economic and political development of TT. Is changing the slogan from “national unity” to “national harmony” a Vision 2020 achievement? In the fight against crime, two key factors are missing: national unity and a humane relationship between the police and the public — a large percentage of law abiding citizens see the police as unnecessarily impolite and hostile to the public.

While I regret the stand taken by the opposition leader Mr Panday not to support the Police Reform Bills or any other bill until there is constitution reform, I cannot ignore the limited constitutional powers or influence of the opposition in Parliament — except in cases of special legislation when the Government must have the support of the opposition for passage. Had it not been for the “special majority” requirement, the opposition would have been totally irrelevant, reduced to a rubber-stamp or a toothless watch-dog barking when no one is listening. That apart, the constitution is basically autocratic, designed to hinder a democratic working relationship between elected MPs and their constituents as MPs favour the interests of the constitutional maximum leader who holds the office of Prime Minister. Following national elections, the constituency representatives are usually hard to find. As soon as they are elected, they vanish. The MPs move like roaches — as soon as the lights come on, they disappear. In the present scenario, I can understand the opposition MPs being unable to get anything done for their constituencies, but it is not much of a difference with those sitting on the Government benches. That is the result of our maximum leadership constitution that permits the manipulation of nominated Senators to undermine the elected representatives of the people.

Trinidad and Tobago must put its house in order and the first step in that direction is constitution reform. It will not solve all our problems, but it will be the best reliable start towards national unity and a new socio-economic and political order that had been lost, following the country’s oil boom squandermania in the 1970s, driven by the “massa day done” philosophy introduced in the late 1950s. We need to move from Prime Ministerial Government to Parliamentary Government. It seems to me that as far as politics are concerned, the national community is disconnected from reality. Why have all the constitution reform advocates during the 18-18 election deadlock suddenly become silent on the issue? Are they like the poor Jew waiting for the Messiah or the year 2020 for a preconceived intellectual exercise that will only retain the status quo, with no changes in the interest of political stability and the empowerment of the less fortunate? And what about the so-called high profile patriotic businessmen who continuously call upon the opposition leader to support the Government on crime fighting initiatives when crime came knocking at their doors, but showed little interest, if any at all, in the opposition’s call for constitution reform?

After all, the demands of the Government and opposition are both in the interest of the nation and it is my view that, apart from the urgency of bills relating to crime, constitution reform is the more important in the context of nation building, security and democratic stability. If the businessmen are true patriots, they would have called on both leaders to sit down and find a way out of the stalemate. The reality is that the Government has constitutional power and the opposition has a constitutional bargaining chip — the requirement of a special majority — which it cannot afford to give up unless there is some compromise that says: in the interest of the on, you will give me what I want and I will give you what you want and call it George, or “the Bastrick Agreement,” and let’s move on. If all our dreams of a successful 2004 are to come true, we the people must take an objective review of our democracy, and civil society must take charge and signal that this country does not belong to two creatures of a regressive and outdated constitution that weakens the link between the elected representatives and their constituencies. Here is the bottom line of our maximum leadership constitution: If we make a Priest the Prime Minister, the very nature of our constitution and the absolute power it gives him will eventually contaminate all of his “moral and spiritual values” if he ever had such values. Constitution reform is the way forward towards a people’s Parliament and better relations between our elected MPs and their constituents.

WYCLIFFE MORRIS
Former Director of Education