TT’S FIRST REFERENDUM

Over quarter of a million people are expected to vote in the country’s first ever referendum on crime, poverty and leadership, being organised by the Keith Noel Committee, said leader, Stephen Cadiz.

“We are expecting about 300,000 people to vote in the Keith Noel Citizens Referendum starting on April 24. We should get the support,” Cadiz said, confidently. He spoke to Newsday yesterday from out of the country.

Citizens are being asked to vote yes to change politics forever in TT by postal or Internet ballot, or by placing the ballot in a box.

“It would be a very costly exercise, like any election,” Cadiz admitted.

“But I’d rather not give figures because dollars and cents distract from the real issues.”

But Cadiz was confident of the financial support of the population to fund the referendum. In addition to setting up a bank account number, he said the committee is getting backing from “quarters” in cash and in kind.

And while quarter of a million people saying yes to change the politics of TT is a political statement, Cadiz insisted that the real meaning behind the referendum is to “make our representatives represent us.

“And if that does not happen, I don’t know where we will go. Every day people ask us to form a political party. But we just don’t want to go there,” the 53-year old businessman and father of three of Port of Spain, said.

Noting that the referendum follows a petition and a death march from the committee, he said they started off as a civic group ignited by the murder of his good friend, Keith Noel.

But Cadiz said, for now, the committee has no plans.

And even though our Constitution does not recognise a referendum, and it has no binding power, he believes the voice of that number of people (the expected 300,000) must count for something.

“The Government and the Opposition can literally throw the referendum in the waste paper basket . There’s nothing we can do about that. But it would be wrong to discount that amount of people,” Cadiz said. “And we would have made citizens aware of their tremendous power.” He said countries all over the world use the referendum to decide on major political issues when governments appear to misrepresent rather than represent.

“In our case, we see that successive governments have failed in a number of areas and the population does not have any day in making decisions,” Cadiz observed.

“The Prime Minister could spend $900 million on the Tarouba Stadium project and say no Tom, Dick, Harry or businessman could stop it.

“But we live in a democracy. And it’s our right to say if we don’t agree with our representative, to recall him if he does not look after our interests.”

The issue of poor leadership is one of the areas citizens are being asked to vote on in the Keith Noel referendum. The crime scourge in the country, which inspired the formation of the Keith Noel Committe, is another issue the population is asked to vote on in the referendum.

Cadiz recalled that, recently, Independent Senator, Dr Ramesh Deosaran, posed the crime question in the Senate but Prime Minister Patrick Manning and National Security Minister Martin Joseph, said Government should not be held responsible for crime.

He said, “The Government can’t say that. The Constitution mandates that it is the State’s duty and responsibility to provide the population with security. They cannot arbitrarily say the responsibility lies with the family or parenting.”

On the issue of poverty, Cadiz said Government spent $120 billion over the last four years but 30 % of the population are still living below the poverty line.

What motivates Stephen Cadiz? “I’ve always had a social conscience,” he replied. “And when Keith was murdered, that caused the whole thing. Anybody could have been a victim in his place.”

Cadiz, an Arima-born practising Roman Catholic, said it all has to do with being able to determine what is right and wrong.

“And what’s happening in our country is wrong,” he said. “And, for too long, we have subscribed to wrong-doing.”