Un­der our con­sti­tu­tion­al arrange­ments, the Pres­i­dent of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go is typ­i­cal­ly a qua­si-cer­e­mo­ni­al head of state, act­ing many times on the ad­vice of the Head of the Ex­ec­u­tive (the Prime Min­is­ter) or the Cab­i­net in con­sul­ta­tion with the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. This hap­pens in the ap­point­ments of in­de­pen­dent ser­vice com­mis­sions and a mul­ti­tude of oth­er ap­point­ments.

There are very few ap­point­ments the Pres­i­dent is al­lowed with­in his sole dis­cre­tion, in­de­pen­dent of par­ti­san in­put as our Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion gives its ten­ta­cles of pow­er more to the Ex­ec­u­tive Arm of the State. One such foot­ing af­ford­ed to the Pres­i­dent to act with his sole pre­rog­a­tive is in the ap­point­ment of the in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors to the up­per cham­ber in our bi-cam­er­al sys­tem.

The in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors per­form a very cru­cial role and be­cause our sys­tem of gov­er­nance mim­ics that of the West­min­ster sys­tem, their con­tri­bu­tions are even more piv­otal with en­sur­ing that bills go through a prop­er ex­am­i­na­tion with a prog­no­sis and a lens void of gain for any par­tic­u­lar po­lit­i­cal group or sect. More­over, they should be ad­dress­ing of is­sues, earnest­ly, sin­cere­ly and no part on the in­de­pen­dents to en­gage in char­ac­ter as­saults or broad paint-brush­ing of any po­lit­i­cal par­ties. They must be im­par­tial and above par­ti­san pol­i­tics.

We must look at com­mend­able prece­dents to help move for­ward. Dur­ing the 2002-2007 Par­lia­men­tary term, Pres­i­dent ANR Robin­son was demit­ting of­fice and Prof Maxwell Richards was as­sum­ing of­fice in March, 2003. The then group of in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors un­der Dr East­lyn McKen­zie (Prof Ramesh De­osaran, An­gela Crop­per, Mary King, Par­va­tee An­mols­ingh, Dr David Quam­i­na, No­ble Khan, Christo­pher Thomas, Bashrath Ali) col­lab­o­rat­ed and de­cid­ed it fit­ting to vis­it Prof George Maxwell Richards and in­di­cate their will­ing­ness to ten­der their res­ig­na­tions and al­low him full au­ton­o­my to fill the spots as he deemed fit.

Luck­i­ly for us, most of the in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tors have giv­en note­wor­thy, in­sight­ful, bal­anced con­tri­bu­tions, ad­dress­ing is­sues. They should, how­ev­er, do the ho­n­ourable thing and of­fer their res­ig­na­tions, then leave it up to the Pres­i­dent to de­cide to re­tain them or not.

Stan­ley Sankar,

?Waller­field