Political analyst: Let public decide on constitutional reform

Political analyst Dr Indira Rampersad says the PNM's opinion of the constitutional reform report should not matter in a wider national context.

In an interview with Newsday on August 19, Rampersad said the party's special convention on August 18 was a political popularity exercise.

The convention was held at the National Academy of the Performing Arts (NAPA) on August 18 to consider the report of the party’s constitution review committee.

The party committee gave its recommendations on the Report of the National Advisory Committee on Constitutional Reform, published on August 15.

The committee, under former speaker Barendra Sinanan, SC, held town meetings across the country to help formulate terms of reference for a formal consultation on constitutional reform.

After the national report was submitted, the PNM appointed a committee to examine it and submit its recommendations to the membership.

Rampersad told Newsday regardless of the party’s views, if they are in government when constitutional reform is implemented, they have to adopt the public’s position on the issues in the report.

She said the party’s views on any of the issues in the national advisory committee’s report, while not irrelevant, are politically biased.

“It's a political position from one party. It's not a politicised issue; it is a national issue. The Constitution is a national document.

“Political partisanship should not determine constitutional reform. What should determine constitutional reform is national perspectives, not partisan.”

Noting the party’s failure to give its views on other key constitutional issues including the right to recall a member of parliament and term limits for prime ministers, Rampersad said the convention was the party’s way of mobilising support for the constitutional changes they want.

“Political gimmickry is what some might call it. They are also trying to start whipping up support for a general election, and they're trying to show their party supporters that they are doing something at a time when the government is at an all-time low with respect to crime, property tax and the economy.

“Many people are asking, ‘What have they done? Given the state of the economy, property tax, crime, unemployment, outstanding labour negotiations, (the number of) people on the bread line and rising poverty, people are asking, ‘What have you done?’”

She believes the party’s stance on the issues will have no effect on the wider public in a general election.

“I don't think it is a seller for a general election. Even if it's done the week before an election, I don't think it's something that would rally votes because what people want is jobs. People want foreign exchange that they cannot get.

“People need to live. They are looking at high price of food, fuel and housing. These are the things that we win an election, not constitutional reform.

“Constitutional reform is really an educated middle-class issue. The general John Public on the block doesn't know much about it and doesn't care.”

Rampersad said many of the major issues will require opposition support anyway and warned the government it should not try to circumvent the Constitution to implement changes based on the party's views.

“Many of these require special majority, and so they would not be able to make changes without the opposition's input.

“And they cannot go and do that unilaterally because there will be a constitutional crisis if any government starts that.

“There has already been talk about them using simple majorities for special majority bills. So they have to be very, very careful of infringing on the current constitution to change it.”