The Cabinet reshuffle

Apr 28, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Cabinet reshuffle has been forced upon the APNU+AFC government. The reshuffle was not the result of assessment about the performance of the government or its Ministers. It was forced upon the government because of the need to address the issue of dual citizenship of parliamentarians.
There had been uncertainty as to what action would have been taken by APNU with respect to dual citizens in the National Assembly. One Minister claimed that he was not illegal and another claimed that advice on the matter was being sought.
Then the United States Department of State issued a statement which called for respect for constitutional rule. That statement left little doubt at what the United States expected. No sooner was that statement issued that the government backpedaled. The outcome is the recent Cabinet reshuffle.
All of these changes could have been avoided had the ruling parties continued with the ‘unofficial policy’ of peaceful coexistence it had with the opposition. Surely, both sides had to have known that it was in violation of the Constitution to have dual citizens in the National Assembly. But neither took a step to challenge the other, because both were in default. They therefore were effectively estopped from challenging one another on this question.
The realization, however, that it had been defeated in a no-confidence motion on December 21, 2018, changed the dynamics within APNU+AFC and the unofficial policy of ‘peaceful coexistence’ with the PPP on the issue of dual citizenship. The legal challenge against dual citizenship was made by a private citizen in an attempt to invalidate the decisive vote of Charandass Persaud. The government supported that legal challenge without fully recognizing the problems that it would have caused.
The chickens have now come home to roost. The Chief Justice and the Court of Appeal have ruled that dual citizens are prohibited from being parliamentarians. And with the United States urging respect for the constitution, both sides have now had to have their members who are dual citizens resign from parliament.
Since a Minister must be someone qualified to be a member of parliament, and since a dual citizen is disqualified from being a member of parliament, it means that those Ministers who are dual citizens either had to give up their foreign citizenship or resign as Ministers and members of parliament. This is what has trigged the Cabinet reshuffle of last Friday.
The reshuffle has degutted the government of its best Ministers. It snatched from the government, one Vice President; a Minister who commands the most powerful Ministry in the government; one of the better performing Ministers; and a senior politician who was instrumental in laying the groundwork for coalition politics. Their resignations have seriously weakened the government.

The government will find an unorthodox way to get around this problem. It will most likely find jobs for these persons within the government. But such a move has never been good for governance. The shadow of the resigned Ministers should never hang over those who have replaced them. It will undermine the incumbents’ performance.
In the circumstances, the cabinet reshuffle was forced and therefore was never going to be easy, but it had to be done. The President deserves credit for at least sticking to the letter of the Constitution. He has not opted to say that he will await the verdict of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He has not resorted to any disingenuous excuses. He has done the right thing, even though some of his own supporters may not agree with some of his choices.
The reshuffle has raised questions about the need and even the usefulness of junior Ministers. Four junior Ministers have been reassigned but only one, Mrs. Dawn Hastings-Williams, has been made into a senior Minister. Miss Annette Ferguson has replaced Mrs. Valerie Patterson-Yearwood who has been given a new portfolio, Minister of Rural Affairs. The former Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, Simona Broomes, has been appointed as a Minister for Youth Affairs, interestingly not within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, but within the Ministry of the Presidency.
No one has been appointed to replace the former Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, or the Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources, thus raising the question as to whether there is any need at all for junior Ministers.

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The Cabinet reshuffle

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The Cabinet reshuffle

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