Three days before its 52nd anniversary of Independence T&T had the distinct honour of joining the exclusive club of two out of 52 Commonwealth countries to have both the recall and runoff systems. The other country being Kiribati, formerly known as Tuvalu and 32 atolls comprising Gilbert Islands, that has been independent since 1979.
Kiribati has a population of around 100,000 on an area of about 300 square miles that the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected could be all under water in about 30 years. Unless there is another blip, T&T would remain the only Commonwealth country with these self-deluding systems.
After 103 years of recall, the USA has managed to remove only two governors and the French have elected one president under the runoff system. Thanks to the three senators (Rolf Balgobin, Dhanayshar Mahabir and David Small) after three days of debates they have managed to move T&T from Westminster straight to the Palace of Versailles in France and to the top of the list of Third World laughing-stock banana republics.
Even those three learned gentlemen must know that these systems, even with the minor tinkering, have not worked properly anywhere in the world. Just ask the Canadians, Swiss and Venezuelans who the Government believes are as happy as pappy with recall.
What is missing from these reforms is the right of recall of the prime minister by way of a referendum because unless there is an outbreak of mad cow disease within a sitting government, the no-confidence vote will never remove anyone from within their ranks. The next burning question is how will non-performing, unelected senators sitting as ministers be recalled.
The sad part of these reforms is that while Kiribati is likely to disappear under water, T&T may have to live with them for a long time. Come September 2015, citizens will realise that they have been taken for ride on a Disney World train.
Jim Jhinkoo
Balmain, Couva