Unholy haste

INDEPENDENT Senator Dr Maria Dillon-Remy says the deadlocked Tobago House of Assembly (THA) could be a test from God, but that did not stop the Government from rushing THA legislation with unholy haste on Tuesday.

In the middle of a pandemic, which has otherwise curtailed the legislature's sitting times, the Senate burned the midnight oil, sitting until just after midnight and voting on a bill whose provisions recommend an increase in THA seats from 12 to 15, among other things.

In piloting the bill earlier on Tuesday, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi had warned “democracy is at stake” in Tobago, given the THA deadlock.

Yet it is precisely Tobago’s democracy that was steamrolled when the Government allowed the bill to go to a vote so soon, even before a planned meeting called with THA assemblymen.

This is an urgent matter. But why the Government could not wait just one more day is a mystery. This is even more so because of the objections raised, as well as the seeming lack of input from key stakeholders in Tobago.

In fact, the Government’s leverage of its powers to pass legislation ahead of the Prime Minister’s meeting with Tobago officials could be seen as approaching an abuse of that power. What benefit is to be gained for democracy by legislating on such a vital issue during the witching hour?

In closing the debate, Mr Al-Rawi used the occasion to name eminent senior counsel whose opinions had been sought, presumably by his office, on the legislation. But at the same time, that advice has not been disclosed to the public, even as the State relies on it to override the objections of civil society.

In any case, legal advice is exactly that: advice. Such opinions are important in clarifying the issues or forecasting the likely parameters of potential proceedings in court. They are not binding. They should not be given disproportionate weight in a matter that is all about the will of the Tobago people.

It is ironic that there was almost a tie on Tuesday night when the bill was passed 16 for and 14 against. That slender margin also underlines another issue: the question of the requisite majority.

Mr Al-Rawi, in his wrap-up, said the bill needed just a simple majority, while Dr Dillon-Remy had observed that a different but related bill called for a special majority.

Perhaps the real reason for the haste was the fact that the new bill sets out to plug “a lacuna” in Elections and Boundaries Commission law relating to Tobago’s THA boundaries.

That decades-old gap was certainly an embarrassment, an oversight perhaps not unrelated to legislators’ practice of sitting late into the night to rush through certain bills.