Richard Lord

Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice David Ab­du­lah is call­ing on cit­i­zens to use their col­lec­tive voice to de­mand ac­count­abil­i­ty in gov­er­nance in T&T. Ab­du­lah made the call in his Re­pub­lic Day mes­sage to the na­tion. "We re­it­er­ate that now is the time for the peo­ple to call for more ac­count­abil­i­ty from those in Gov­ern­ment. For the MSJ, there is strong ev­i­dence that the cri­sis of gov­er­nance and the lev­el of in­jus­tice in the sys­tem are send­ing the coun­try in­to a down­ward spi­ral of so­cial dis­in­te­gra­tion. In this re­gard, our col­lec­tive si­lence will have dis­as­trous con­se­quences for our Re­pub­lic," Ab­du­lah added. Ab­du­lah stressed:?"Cit­i­zens and civ­il so­ci­ety must seize the mo­ment of the cri­sis of Sec­tion 34 to move for pro­gres­sive change that will sus­tain the Re­pub­lic long af­ter this is­sue has been ful­ly re­solved and all are held to ac­count."

He said it is the pow­er of the peo­ple of T&T that forced Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to act and dis­miss the Jus­tice Min­is­ter for his role in the sor­did Sec­tion 34 is­sue. He added:?"It was the com­bined ef­fect of state­ments by a cross-sec­tion of civ­il so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions to­geth­er with the pres­ence of thou­sands in a mass demon­stra­tion on the streets that led to the Gov­ern­ment chang­ing its stance from "let's move on" to an open apol­o­gy and the fir­ing of a Min­is­ter." Ab­du­lah called on so­cial and civ­il so­ci­ety to press ahead with the de­mand for oth­ers who were re­spon­si­ble to be held to ac­count for the cloak and dag­ger in­clu­sion of the Sec­tion 34 of the Amend­ment to the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings) Act, 2011. He said what was even more im­por­tant was the need to col­lec­tive­ly de­vel­op a cit­i­zens' agen­da for re­al change. Ab­du­lah said that agen­da when im­ple­ment­ed will make for a bet­ter na­tion where there are greater checks and bal­ances on the Ex­ec­u­tive. "On­ly this will pre­vent the kind of abuse of pow­er which we have been wit­ness to over our en­tire ex­pe­ri­ence of In­de­pen­dence, but which has been man­i­fest in a very ug­ly man­ner in the Sec­tion 34 af­fair," the for­mer Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor said.

Ab­du­lah said his par­ty was ob­serv­ing the Re­pub­lic an­niver­sary with "grave con­cern." He said when T&T?be­came a Re­pub­lic, 36 years ago, cit­i­zens be­stowed the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the man­age­ment of every as­pect of the af­fairs of state to the Ex­ec­u­tive through the pow­ers con­ferred on them by our Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion. "That solemn re­spon­si­bil­i­ty has been in the past, and cer­tain­ly is to­day, be­ing un­der­mined and treat­ed in a very cav­a­lier way by mem­bers of the Ex­ec­u­tive, and this we are sure is of great con­cern to every right think­ing cit­i­zen of this coun­try," Ab­du­lah said. Deal­ing specif­i­cal­ly with the procla­ma­tion of Sec­tion 34 of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice (In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings) Act 2011 - which was sub­se­quent­ly re­pealed - was "a lev­el of dis­re­spect to the peo­ple of this coun­try that should nev­er be al­lowed to be re­peat­ed." He said Gov­ern­ments need to re­mem­ber that they were at all times ac­count­able to the peo­ple. "The lev­el of ar­ro­gance that we are wit­ness­ing to­day, is what, back in 2009, gen­er­at­ed the push for The Peo­ple's Democ­ra­cy," he in­sist­ed.

He called for spe­cif­ic mea­sures to be ad­dressed in a Cit­i­zens Agen­da:

•Con­sti­tu­tion Re­form

•Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form

•Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment Leg­is­la­tion

•Cam­paign and Par­ty Fi­nance Reg­u­la­tions

•Land Use and Phys­i­cal Plan­ning Pol­i­cy and a re­formed Reg­u­la­to­ry Frame­work

•Re­form of Labour Leg­is­la­tion to pro­vide for the Un­fet­tered Right to Free­dom of As­so­ci­a­tion

•A Pro­gres­sive En­er­gy Pol­i­cy and Fis­cal Man­age­ment to en­sure that all Rev­enues – Oil and Non-Oil are col­lect­ed by the State.