Government must account to the electorate of T&T. And, as the People's Partnership gets set to celebrate their third anniversary, former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said citizens must demand answers for the missteps and inaction of the Government.
He also knocked the Government for its failed effort under the state of emergency as crime continues to spiral out of control. Accusing the Government of neglecting the social, working and business class, Maharaj said they have disregarded the values of governance to promote integrity and morality in public life.
He said farmers have also been betrayed as they are yet to secure tenure for state lands. In a candid interview with Sunday Guardian last week, Maharaj waded into the PP saying they have failed the people and the country is no better off than it was under the former administration.
Q: Mr Maharaj you have not been as vocal in respect of governance and civil rights as you have been when other governments were in power. What is the reason for this?
A: I have made public statements against this Government such as its actions in the creation of the state of emergency, the alleged assassination plot against the Prime Minister, the Reshmi Ramnarine affair, the treatment given to EFPA policyholders of Clico, the unconstitutional action of the Government in passing a law to take away the rights of Clico depositors to sue Clico or the Central Bank in respect of the Policies of Insurance.
There are many other grievous wrongs which this Government committed in respect of which I did not make public statements but I am no longer in public life. The Government got a landslide victory in the last election and I believe it had to get an opportunity to fulfil the promises it made to the electorate.
Do you think that the Government has kept its promises in its manifesto to the electorate?
No. Its major promise was a new kind of governance. It said there would be "transparency, accountability, people participation and effective representation as essential principles of good governance." That has not happened and it is not happening. It is a naked betrayal of the electorate by the Government. Take a recent example, the people of San Fancique and Debe and the surrounding areas were not consulted before the Government decided that a highway would pass through their lands. This would disrupt their family lives, their cultural traditions which they and their ancestors have enjoyed, destroy the environment and even result in separation of their families. The Government did not hold consultation with them before it was decided on the policy to take their lands for the highway. After it made the decision, awarded the contract to build the highway and started the construction of it, it held a so-called consultation after the people protested. That consultation was therefore a sham, a public relations gimmick.
Members of the Government in opposition marched with me when we accused the Manning administration of doing the same thing with the Aluminium Smelter Project and the Rapid Rail Project. The Government promised that there would be people participation on important issues, not only in consulting with the people on important policy changes but also by holding referenda on those major issues in order for the people to have a right to vote on the issues.
Ministers have risen not the people
Maharaj continued: The Political Leader of the People's Partnership during the election campaign can be remembered as saying "serve the people, serve the people, serve the people". She can also be remembered as saying the people would "rise". Now the people are saying that ministers have risen and ministers are serving themselves.
The Prime Minister only a week ago said that there would be no referendum on the issue of taking away appeals in criminal matters from the Privy Council and that the government intends to make the Caribbean Court of Justice(CCJ) the final Court of Appeal in respect of those matters. That was the policy of the Manning administration. The UNC opposed that policy.
The Prime Minister as part of the UNC in Opposition opposed that policy. The Prime Minister condemned the policy to have the CCJ as the final Court of Appeal. The Congress of the People agreed that it promised the population that there would be a referendum on this issue. Is the new politics the right of a political party to fool the people. They said that was the old politics.
The same criticisms of non participation by the people in the decision of government to change policy can be levelled against the Government in respect of numerous policy decisions and changes the Partnership Government made since it got into office. In the manifesto of the Partnership at Page 15 it states that there would be 'mechanisms for a referendum process' and 'a right of recall for non-performing parliamentary representatives'.
Nothing like this is happening. Instead the Government has become arrogant and it targets anyone who criticises it including journalists. Pre-action protocol letters have become a political weapon by this government which it uses against its critics.
• Next week: Maharaj speaks out on what he believes is responsible for Government's failure to fulfil its election promises to the people.