Bad week for Manning

Two days later, another Privy Council decision went against the Government in respect to police promotions, the Law Lords this time ruling that Cabinet had been overstepping its authority for the past 40 years by taking part in the process. This judgement cut especially deep at the Manning regime, since the Prime Minister’s actions in respect to the Commissioner of Police — personally giving the last one his letter of appointment and making the present one wait for it — had already given rise to accusations of interference in the Police Service.

And then, on Thursday, the chairpersons of five parliamentary committees took the unprecedented step of going public with their grievances in respect to Government’s treatment of them. Amongst those chairmen are three independent senators — Ramesh Deosaran, Mary King, and Parbatie Anmolsingh-Mahabir — which makes it impossible for the Government to spin this development as driven by partisan politics.

The parliamentary committees were set up for the specific purpose of letting Parliament scrutinise the actions of government Ministries and State boards, so that incompetence and sharp practices could be unearthed. The core purpose is to ensure that the citizens of the country are better served by the agencies of the State. And, indeed, these committees have brought to light scandals that might otherwise have passed unnoticed.

Yet what has been seen thus far may well be only the fluke of the bureaucratic whale. The Senators have complained about the lack of processing and analytical staff needed for them to do their committee jobs properly. They have no one to perform secretarial duties or to do research. Since these Senators have hundreds of documents to peruse, it has proven impossible to be thorough in their investigations. Additionally, where assertions have been made by State board members, the Senators have not had the resources needed to verify those claims.

Now, clearly, the Independent Senators, who are a conservative bunch, would not have decided to go public with their complaints unless all the standard approaches had failed. Indeed, it is likely that even that failure might not have persuaded them to air their grievances, unless they were convinced that the Government was deliberately forestalling them.

Given the Machiavellian strategies which have been revealed in the recent Privy Council judgements, this is not beyond belief. After all, the Parliamentary committees have revealed practices that often show the Government in a poor light — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the committees have shown Government in a light much brighter than the politicians are able to withstand.

This being the case, the Government may well be trying to undermine the work of the committees. But that would have to be done surreptitiously, and not providing basic support services may, to the political mind, be seen as an effective way of doing so. However, now that the senators have revealed what has been happening, Prime Minister Manning would be well advised to ensure that the Parliamentary committees are given everything they require to perform their duties effectively. This would go some way to repairing the damage done by the Privy Council judgements, and allaying the fears of citizens about a burgeoning dictatorship.