Latest update December 21st, 2024 1:52 AM
Journal to railroad constitutional reform is on the road
Dear Editor,
Constitutional reform was a major platform upon which the APNU and AFC campaigned for the 2011 General and Regional Elections. In the campaign for the 2015 General and Regional Elections, with the two parties combined, the call for constitutional reforms hit a fever pitch. Indeed, it featured as a prominent objective in its 100 days plan, if elected to Government.
However, I always sensed that the APNU/AFC was never genuine in this call. I always felt that they were being dragged along by the AFC’s then Chairman, Mr. Nigel Hughes. Generally, the reduction of Executive powers and specifically, the diminution of Presidential Powers and immunities were always the axis upon which the rhetoric of constitutional reform orbited.
However, deep down I always knew that once power was tasted by those who were so hungry for it, the desire to reduce, miniaturize and devolve that power would recede into oblivion. A number of events, which ensued, proved me correct.
To avoid important tenets of the Cummingsburg Accord, the APNU ingeniously invoked the Constitution; so for example, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo was prevented from chairing Cabinet because the Constitution names the President as the Chairman of Cabinet. How these elementary constitutional provisions eluded the battery of lawyers in the AFC at the time they negotiated the Accord, baffles me on to this day. Thus begun a journey to thwart the promised constitutional reform.
Expectedly, there was no movement in the direction of constitutional reform until months before the 2016 budget, when the Prime Minister announced the appointment of a Steering Committee on constitutional reform. Characteristically, the Prime Minister wasted no time in using the occasion as a grand photo opportunity with him posing with the members of this Committee. The process then hit an inexplicable hiatus until the 2016 budget.
In the 2016 budget, $80M GYD was allocated for the work of this Committee. In the Committee of Supply, I enquired of the Prime Minister, with whom did he consult in the selection of persons for this Committee. His response was that he consulted with “his colleagues in Government.” I informed the Prime Minister that in the context of Government, “consultation” connotes an engagement extrinsic and not intrinsic of Government.
In short, there was no consultation. The work of this Committee was very low key. This was deliberate. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the only Opposition in Parliament and the largest singular political representative of the people of this country, was not consulted. In fact, the nation was only reminded of the existence of this Committee when it submitted its report to the Prime Minister. Perhaps, had it not been for the Prime Minister’s peculiar crush on the camera, the public would have been none the wiser. The event was converted into a Kodak moment and disseminated via the press.
To date that report has not been made public. Only sporadic references are made of it when it is politically convenient to do so. The truth is, that it is all political sophistry. The APNU/AFC are not genuinely interested in constitutional reform. The rejuvenated activism, which we are now witnessing in the press, is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
I am fortified in my view that this Coalition is not serious about constitutional reforms but pays lip service to the concept at the altar of political expediency, because APNU/AFC have been in control of the National Assembly since 2011, that is, for six years. The President, as Opposition Leader, caused himself to be elected as Chairman of the Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform during the 10th Parliament. In that Committee, as in every other Committee of that Parliament, the Opposition enjoyed a majority.
No more than three meetings were held in three and a half years. Absolutely nothing of substance was done. In the 11thParliament, Attorney General, Basil Williams, was elected Chairman of this Committee. Again, the Government enjoys a majority. Apart from the meeting to elect the Attorney General as Chairman, this Committee has not met in over two and a half years. I have been a member of the Committee in both Parliaments.
Anil Nandlall
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