An attack on democracy

THE EDITOR: The PNM has always been an anti-democratic force in TT.

From the beginning, it has stood for the centralisation of power, in the office and person of the prime minister, who it would like to have the absolute power of the old governor, if not the old king of England himself.

The PNM's vision has always been for every arm of the State to be subject to control and veto by the prime minister, from the Commissioner of Police to the service commissions to the President.

The PNM is about domination, not democracy.

Nominating Christine Kangaloo – deep PNM insider from the Kangaloo-Garcia clan, an extreme partisan, and otherwise professionally undistinguished – for the presidency of TT illustrates this totalitarianism perfectly.

Kangaloo is clearly wanted there to do the PNM’s bidding, not to stand fearlessly and independently for the rights, freedoms and advancement of citizens.

The only reason the Constitution has its democratic elements of accountability, checks and balances, and restraint on governmental power is because the people of TT have fought the PNM tooth and nail to extract these concessions.

These have been hard-won gains.

However, at every moment and every opportunity, the PNM tries to push back these democratic concessions and move to a one-party totalitarian state, its ideal model for governance.

This was true for the Independence Constitution and the Republican Constitution.

There was always a tension between the PNM’s desire for absolute control and the people’s desire for democracy and freedom.

Accordingly, our Republican Constitution – passed when there was no opposition party elected in Parliament – gives the ruling party enough power to impose its will on the population in a large number of situations.

If Kangaloo is elected as president, she may give the Government even more power than the Constitution already allows, as happened with the illegal firing of Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambaran.

Again, in this case, the PNM did not want a Central Bank governor that was independent, and whom it could not control.

So it had to wait until the substantive President was absent and Kangaloo was the acting President. This mess was only cleaned up by the High Court seven years after the deed was done.

Notably, in 2007, former prime minister Patrick Manning proposed to abolish the Privy Council in the new constitution he had proposed with Ellis Clarke. Thank goodness the UNC had denied the PNM its two-thirds majority, despite the split votes.

This attempt to remove the Privy Council and remove the Central Bank governor only further proves that we must always be on the lookout for the PNM’s scheming, as it always tries to push its one-party totalitarian dictatorship model on TT, even under the deceptive names of legislation such as “local government reform.”

Like everything else the PNM does, this nomination of Kangaloo is an attack on democracy – an attempt to push back the separation of powers, checks and balances, the rule of law and democratic accountability.

This is what the PNM has wanted all along since 1956.

Fortunately, the people of TT have been pushing back since 1956, and have been able to enshrine and install democratic features in our Constitution.

The UNC has been the leading force in that historic people's struggle against PNM one-party totalitarian dictatorship.

The UNC will continue to fight for democracy, no matter what the temporary setbacks, confident in the victory of good over evil.

DR KIRK MEIGHOO

PRO, UNC