Enough is enough

WHEN IT governed the country, the United National Congress played a leading role in laying the foundation for setting up the Caribbean Court of Justice. Now that the party has returned to the Opposition benches, it has made an inexplicable about face on the CCJ, declaring that it would not support legislation to bring the Court into being. We consider this turnaround an act of gross absurdity on the part of the UNC, a particularly tragic example of the purely obstructionist force that the opposition party has become. It is time, we believe, for the country to tell Mr Panday and the UNC that enough is enough; the purpose of an opposition in our parliamentary system is not to retard the progress of the country, not to resist measures for improving the administration of the people's business or proposals aimed at solving urgent national problems. Rather, the Opposition is there to monitor the operations of the government, to ensure that it remains on the straight and narrow and to present itself as a credible alternative to the party in power. Since it lost the last elections in October 2002, however, the UNC has fallen into such disarray that it has lost sight of these responsibilities and, instead, has taken to expressing its anguish like a wounded animal, growling negatively at everything, even to the detriment of the country.

Who do Mr Panday and the UNC think they are hurting when they seek to prevent the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice or refuse to cooperate on other serious measures such as the Anti-Kidnapping Bills and the Police Management Bills? The Government? No. They are hurting the country. And that is the tragedy of the negative policy they have adopted. The CCJ, which replaces the British Privy Council as the final Court of Appeal for TT and other Commonwealth Caribbean states, is necessary to complete the sovereignty of our region, creating an institution that would be manned by our own jurists and produce our own jurisprudence and legal traditions. How urgent is this evolution may be seen in the recent judgments of the Law Lords who are resorting to all kinds of ridiculous stratagems to impose their abolitionist beliefs and policies upon us. But all of this was fully understood, indeed firmly propounded, by the UNC when it held office. Indeed, the UNC government was actively taking steps to stop murder appeals from going before the Privy Council. It is actually bizarre that the party can now adopt an entirely opposite stand on this vital matter.

The fact is, it would be a severe embarrassment for our country and a serious setback to efforts at setting up the court if, because of UNC opposition, the enabling legislation fails to obtain the approval of parliament. Our Caricom partners, knowing the enthusiasm we had for the court, will now look askance at our politics and our commitment to the goal of regional integration. In light of all of this, we must appeal to UNC parliamentarians to seriously reconsider the policy of non-cooperation their party has adopted and the damaging effect it is having on the country's affairs. It is a hopeful sign that Mr Gerald Yetming has the personal courage and concern for the party and the country to speak out frankly on the problem of UNC leadership and its legislative policy. How far the party is prepared to go in senselessly retarding the progress of TT will be seen in the CCJ legislation. We can only hope that Prime Minister Manning will be successful in his personal quest to obtain the necessary UNC votes to have the legislation enacted. We have said before that the country needs a good Opposition; the proper functioning of our democracy demands it. So it is time for concerned citizens to tell the UNC that we have had enough of this nonsense.