Just so, Mr Manning?

JUST SO, Mr Manning?

Chalkdust, it seems, has a new example to add to his classic 2003 calypso - that is the decision of the Prime Minister and his government to relocate the seat of Parliament to a building to be constructed on the other side of Knox Street. Whatever the antecedent contemplation about it, the Prime Minister's recent announcement that his government intends to sever the traditional connection between Parliament and the Red House has come as quite a surprise and shock to the citizenry, indeed as another "just so" action.

Apart from the inherent insensitivity and misguided nature of the decision, the fact that Mr Manning did not see the need to first consult the people about the removal of their parliament - the people's parliament - from its historic place in the Red House is a matter of serious concern. Instead, the PM has decided to drop it on them "just so" and is determined to go ahead with this dubious plan in spite of the mounting level of dissent coming from a cross section of the population. Many, in fact, may now begin to feel a sense of betrayal after expecting a higher level of commitment to transparency and accountability from Mr Manning and his government.

The message now being sent by the PM is a truly disturbing one, that consultation is no longer important and that the opinion and voice of the people, no matter how reasonable, anxious or logically expressed, counts for very little. The attitude of Mr Manning in this matter is also illustrated in the fact that the idea of discussing the plan with the Chief Justice did not even occur to him, although the new parliament building he envisioned would replace the newly renovated Magistrates' Courts, a costly new wing of which is yet to be occupied! Mr Manning has decided unilaterally to relocate the parliament, which belongs to the people, and that is that. He remains quite unimpressed, it seems, by a petitioning letter from Senator Ramchand which is also signed by 46 prominent citizens including academics, artists, conservationists and historians.

In reply, the PM told a public meeting on Saturday night that the protestors were making the fundamental error of believing that the Red House was the traditional seat of Parliament. Instead, he said, "it is the seat of government and it is to those historic roots that we are determined to return it." Mr Manning's intention is now becoming clear; he apparently wants to relocate the PM's office from Whitehall to the refurbished Red House. Sad to say, however the Prime Minister desperately needs a lesson in the political history of Trinidad and Tobago. The fact is, the country's law making body, through all the stages of its constitutional evolution since 1848, was always located in the Red House. Michael Anthony indicates this in his "Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago." The Ramchand petition also records this historical fact: "The Red House has always been the seat of law making."

While it is true that the Red House once also contained the offices of the Colonial Secretariat, that extinct pre-independence agency could hardly have had the organic, indeed visceral, connection with the populace as the Legislative Council-turned-Parliament which traces so much of their vital history. The fundamental error, it seems to us, is being made by the Prime Minister who is not only misusing history but is ominously ignoring the fact that the Parliament is not his; it belongs to the people. He cannot move it just so.