DAREECE POLO
Senior Reporter
dareece.polo@guardian.co.tt
Two political analysts are backing the Government’s concerns about the so-called independence of senators appointed by the President. But a former Independent Senator who faced the rebuke of United National Congress public relations officer, Dr Kirk Meighoo, is dismissing his criticism as baseless.
Citing a recent ruling by Senate President Wade Mark, political scientist Prof Hamid Ghany noted that while public commentary on past votes is fair, speculating on future votes is inappropriate.
He was responding to Meighoo’s comments at the UNC’s headquarters on Sunday that if at least four Independent senators do not support the Prime Minister’s Pension (Amendment) Bill, 2025 “they will actually allow the PNM to continue to rape the Treasury, even in Opposition.”
“To suggest that you could try to intimidate them on votes that they are going to take in the future, I agree with the President of the Senate that you really shouldn’t,” the political scientist said.
However, Ghany remains disturbed by the apparent flip-flopping by Independent Senators which he said challenges their credibility and potentially undermines public perception of neutrality. Last Friday, the Upper House voted on the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority (Repeal) Bill in the committee stage where six independent senators abstained including Senior Counsel Anthony Vieira, Deoroop Teemal, Michael Simon Victor de la Bastide, Candice Jones-Simmons, Francis Lewis and Alicia Pauline Lalite-Ettienne.
Dr Desirée Murray, Courtney Mc Nish and temporary independent senator Zola Phillips voted yes. Roughly seven minutes later, by the end of the Committee Stage, eight Independent Senators had changed their positions.
Ghany declined to speculate on the senators’ motives but he emphasised that their votes carry weight and their behaviour warrants scrutiny.
“I’m very troubled about these ‘presidential senators’ making one decision in Committee Stage and seven or eight minutes later changing it from yes to no, or from abstain to no.
“I have never seen senators change their vote from committee stage to the final vote in such a short space of time.”
Weighing in on the independence of senators appointed by the President, political analyst Winford James reiterated previous calls for constitutional reform, advocating for a shift to a directly elected executive presidency to ensure real independence in critical appointments.
He recalled that former prime minister Patrick Manning had proposed similar reforms, which were echoed in the findings of a National Advisory Committee on Constitutional Reform established under the Dr Keith Rowley-led administration.
James said the actions of the independent bench have raised valid questions about objectivity.
“We need to eliminate the suspicion that people appointed to the Presidential office, people appointed as independent senators, are acting as true independents. Not that you want to wipe out all of the suspicions that we have here, but at least you’re going to get greater fairness, greater objectivity, than what the current appointment process generates. What it generates is a kind of confusion.”
Former senator hits back
Former Independent Senator and attorney Hazel Thompson-Ahye yesterday pushed back against criticism from the UNC’s PRO, calling it “nonsensical” to judge a senator’s independence based solely on how often they vote with the Government.
“It is nonsensical to judge the independence of a senator by the number of times he/ she has voted with the Government. That vote, many times, would have come after careful consideration by the Senator of the wording of the legislation and by useful suggestions made to improve the legislation to accord with legal principles.”
The attorney was responding to the UNC PRO, who highlighted that during her tenure from 2018 to 2025, she voted 14 out of 16 times in favour of the PNM administration.
Thompson-Ahye insisted her record in Parliament demonstrates her independence, pointing to numerous occasions where she openly criticised the government.
“I have come to Parliament and chastised the government for the low age of criminal responsibility, for not having laws on sexual harassment, for failure to adhere to the Convention on the rights of the child with regard to its treatment of migrant children which amounted to discrimination. I have called out the Minister of National Security on failure to uphold the law regarding indecency of wear and behaviour at Carnival time. I have called out the Minister of Education for assuming jurisdiction over girls over age 16 to send them to MILAT. I was reported in the press as the senator who told the minister of finance he should apologise to the auditor general. I could go on and on,” she said.
“My back is broad, so I can take the negative comments. But I must wonder where is the real evidence of lack of independence? I have given presentations and workshops in 33 countries of the world and belong to 3 international organisations and my respect is well intact. Who knows Mr Meighoo,” she quipped.
Efforts to contact other Independent Senators named by Meighoo, including Amrita Deonarine, Dr Varma Deyalsingh, Charisse Seepersad, and Paul Richards were unsuccessful.
PNM condemns attack
PNM General Secretary and Opposition Senator Foster Cummings has condemned both Meighoo and Government for what he described as “attacks” on Independent Senators who criticised government policy in the Senate.