{"id":555,"date":"2008-07-14T23:59:55","date_gmt":"2008-07-15T03:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=555"},"modified":"2008-07-17T23:12:40","modified_gmt":"2008-07-18T03:12:40","slug":"manning%e2%80%99s-second-bid-for-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"Manning\u2019s second bid for presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sean Douglas
\nMonday, July 14 2008
\nnewsday.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Patrick ManningPRIME Minister Patrick Manning, despite his strenuous denials, could well make a second bid to become TT\u2019s Executive President after he presented the 42nd PNM Annual Convention at Chaguaramas with extracts of a \u201cworking paper\u201d that looked suspiciously like a second version of his Draft Constitution which provoked a public outcry in 2006. <\/p>\n

The latest document proposes not only a \u201cpresidential system of Government\u201d in Manning\u2019s own words, but also seems to severely curtail the independence of the Parliament, Cabinet, Judiciary, Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and Permanent Secretaries in the Public Service.
\n
\nManning repeatedly denied authorship of the document and told the audience that the document was not his idea and had originated from the previous public consultations on the first Draft Constitution, although he made subsequent noises to the convention which suggested otherwise. <\/p>\n

As he read out the proposals, he seemed to depart from his script to try to rouse members to support the document. \u201cMy dear friends, how it sounds to you?,\u201d he said to elicit loud cheers from some persons present. \u201cYou like it? You like the process? Isn\u2019t Trinidad and Tobago moving forward at a fast rate? The PNM is the only party with a vision for the development of the country\u201d. <\/p>\n

Manning said the document \u2014 which would be presented in one month\u2019s time \u2014 was a product of an ongoing roundtable of academics and Ministers chaired by Manning and meeting at Whitehall, presumably reviewing the results of the previous public consultations on his first Draft Constitution. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot have constitutional arrangements or any approach to arrive at those arrangements that do not take the elected representatives of the people into account.\u201d <\/p>\n

He claimed the document did not represent any consensus or the Government\u2019s views, but had emerged from the roundtable\u2019s discussion and would assist in the debate on new constitutional arrangements to govern TT. <\/p>\n

He denied the proposal was for an executive presidency, where Government Ministers were merely advisors to the Head of Government, but said it was rather a presidential system, where alongside the President, he would like to see the power of Cabinet being enshrined in a TT National Constitution. <\/p>\n

Scoffing at allegations he was seeking to be Executive President, he said: \u201cAll those who feel it is the be-all and end-all of my existence, I am sorry to disappoint you\u201d. <\/p>\n

Manning said Cabinet should include only six elected MPs, while the bulk should be appointees from outside Parliament. <\/p>\n

He said now there are too few Government backbenchers to sit on parliamentary committees, but a presidential system would free MPs of ministerial duty to instead sit on committees. The working paper, he said, sought to have five parliamentary committees be enshrined in the Constitution \u2014 on energy, foreign affairs, and one each akin to the Public Accounts Committee, Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee, and a Joint Select Committee. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a working document. It\u2019s nobody\u2019s proposals, not the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, not the roundtable. I don\u2019t want anyone to say it is Manning\u2019s proposing.\u201d He got loud claps when he said what was sought was a \u201cTrinidad and Tobago Model\u201d <\/p>\n

He said the document proposed that local government would help citizens\u2019 voice be heard, as each corporation would nominate a person to sit in the Senate whose proposed 12 new Senators could shift the balance of power in Parliament. If the Government lost a local election, he said, this could act in Parliament as a check on the Government. \u201cSo you understand why we want to delay the local government elections,\u201d he said, adding that the current system is dysfunctional. He said the document is suggesting that in contrast to their current non-political nature, Permanent Secretaries should be appointed from outside of the Public Service. \u201cSo as a Government changes, they can appoint anyone.\u201d <\/p>\n

Manning said the working paper proposes that the DPP no longer be fully independent of the Attorney-General. He said the document says the DPP could still be independent on criminal matters, but not on matters involving official secrets, terrorism or state to state relations. \u201cThe DPP must have the approval of the Attorney-General before he acts,\u201d he said, refering to the three cases, and again insisting this was not a proposal made by him. <\/p>\n

While saying the independence of the Judiciary is sacrosanct to the PNM, he also said if the Judiciary demanded $50 million in funding to spend as they saw fit and the Government granted that, this situation would amount to the existence of a State within a State. <\/p>\n

Manning said the document proposed that while the Juduiciary continues to do its own judicial functions, a Ministry of Justice be set up to carry out the Judiciary\u2019s administrative functions. \u201cIt is a proposal; It is not from Manning. Do you find it interesting?\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said there would now be a protracted consultations the working paper, after which the Government would lay a Green Paper in Parliament as its statement of intent. More consultations would result in the Green Paper being refined into a White Paper of Government policy. Manning hit the Opposition as being uninterested in anything uplifting to the people of TT. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get the support of the people of Trinidad and Tobago, we will not need Opposition support,\u201d he said cryptically. <\/p>\n

He called the Opposition a \u201ctotal, complete and abject waste of time\u201d and the worst Opposition he had seen in his 38 years in Parliament. He tried to rouse the audience\u2019s disdain of the Opposition and use it to \u201csell\u201d the working paper to the crowd. <\/p>\n

Manning promised a series of special conventions to bring the party up to date and solicit their views. <\/p>\n

Otherwise Manning said he would never stay in politics for a day longer than necessary, saying he would know the time to leave before anyone else.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,82476.html<\/p>\n

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By Sean Douglas Monday, July 14 2008 newsday.co.tt PRIME Minister Patrick Manning, despite his strenuous denials, could well make a second bid to become TT\u2019s Executive President after he presented the 42nd PNM Annual Convention at Chaguaramas with extracts of a \u201cworking paper\u201d that looked suspiciously like a second version of his Draft Constitution which … Continue reading Manning\u2019s second bid for presidency<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}