It is with the deep­est re­spect but at the same time with an ag­o­nised soul that I de­sire to use this medi­um to ad­dress the Head of State, His Ex­cel­len­cy An­tho­ny Car­mona:Mr Pres­i­dent, we re­ceived with great joy the an­nounce­ment that you will be our next Pres­i­dent. We all thought that, know­ing this present Gov­ern­ment, it will nom­i­nate one of its spine­less and ig­no­rant lack­eys to suc­ceed for­mer pres­i­dent Max Richards.Mr Pres­i­dent our cups over­flowed when we lis­tened to your in­au­gur­al ad­dress. Our ex­pec­ta­tions were tak­en to new heights. Sad­ly, Mr Pres­i­dent sub­se­quent de­vel­op­ments have forced us to tem­per our joy and ex­pec­ta­tions.

Mr Pres­i­dent, your of­fice is be­ing dis­re­spect­ed by the Gov­ern­ment. Your pre­de­ces­sor, by let­ter to the PM, al­so com­plained about the dis­re­spect shown to his of­fice by the present PM. In both your cas­es, the dis­re­spect stems from a false premise but is very sim­i­lar and yet dif­fer­ent.In the case of for­mer pres­i­dent Max Richards, it was be­cause he was ap­point­ed pres­i­dent by the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion. In your case, the dis­re­spect stems from the fact that you were ap­point­ed by the present ad­min­is­tra­tion.Your Ex­cel­len­cy, you are not owned by the PP Gov­ern­ment. Your dai­ly bread and but­ter does not de­pend on their gen­eros­i­ty. You are ac­count­able to none but the peo­ple. You do not have to run pell-mell to the sum­mons of this Gov­ern­ment.

One may ask what was the Head of State do­ing as a spec­ta­tor to a non-event such as the Hoop of Life in­au­gu­ra­tion, with the PM on cen­tre stage? Now comes the vis­it of the Pres­i­dent of Chi­na and our Head of State was lost in the crowd some­where.Your Ex­cel­len­cy, you must have the pow­er to hire your own staff. You do not have to ac­cept what the Gov­ern­ment throws at you. Mr Pres­i­dent, you still have a lot of good­will out there.There are hon­est and im­par­tial peo­ple whom you can em­ploy and con­sult. Did your pre­de­ces­sor ever give the im­pres­sion that he was owned by the PNM?Mr Pres­i­dent, there are at present high of­fice hold­ers who cow­er and cringe on hear­ing the foot­steps of the grand la­dy.

Do you want the peo­ple to view you as such? Mr Pres­i­dent, look in the mir­ror. Do you see any re­sem­blance to the Gov­er­nor of the Cen­tral Bank, the CoP or his deputy, or any min­is­ter of gov­ern­ment? Cer­tain­ly not! Your Ex­cel­len­cy, you must be like the Arch­bish­op of "Po­er-of-Spain" who de­clared he would not keep qui­et on so­cial and po­lit­i­cal is­sues. He was ver­bal­ly at­tacked. You spoke out on is­sues when you were on the bench.You must do so now. You al­so will be at­tacked. No se­cret let­ter to the PM will suf­fice. We want to hear you from the pin­na­cle you are sup­posed to oc­cu­py.Mr Pres­i­dent, a peo­ple is in death throes. We are bru­talised and sub­ject­ed to grave in­jus­tices. Our wealth is be­ing si­phoned off as our beloved coun­try slips be­low the sur­face of a gi­ant cesspool.Your Ex­cel­len­cy, join with the Arch­bish­op and save us.

Hilton Charles

Pointe-a-Pierre