Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Deputy Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) po­lit­i­cal leader and Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Jear­lean John has ac­cused the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (LATT) of at­tempt­ing to cur­tail Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s free­dom of ex­pres­sion.

John made the ac­cu­sa­tion as she strong­ly de­fend­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s crit­i­cism of In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors fol­low­ing their re­fusal to sup­port the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill.

“I stand firm­ly in sup­port of the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter’s state­ment re­gard­ing ‘In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors’, and I al­so con­demn the Law As­so­ci­a­tion’s fee­ble at­tempt to cur­tail the Prime Min­is­ter’s right to free speech,” John said.

LATT, in a state­ment on Mon­day, ex­pressed con­cern over Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s crit­i­cism of the In­de­pen­dent Bench and her de­c­la­ra­tion that the Gov­ern­ment would no longer ac­cept amend­ments pro­posed by In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors.

The as­so­ci­a­tion de­fend­ed the con­sti­tu­tion­al role of the nine In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors and ar­gued that democ­ra­cy de­pend­ed on gov­ern­ments hear­ing and con­sid­er­ing views from out­side the Gov­ern­ment bench.

John, how­ev­er, ac­cused the as­so­ci­a­tion of se­lec­tive­ly re­ly­ing on the Con­sti­tu­tion while over­look­ing the Prime Min­is­ter’s right to crit­i­cise pub­lic of­fi­cials.

“At its core, the Con­sti­tu­tion is meant to nur­ture democ­ra­cy and pro­tect fun­da­men­tal rights. In case the Law As­so­ci­a­tion needs a re­minder, free speech is the lifeblood of democ­ra­cy,” she said.

John ar­gued that sen­a­tors were not im­mune from pub­lic crit­i­cism and said strong po­lit­i­cal lan­guage was part of ro­bust de­mo­c­ra­t­ic de­bate.

She al­so ques­tioned the po­si­tion of In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors, ar­gu­ing that un­like elect­ed politi­cians, they do not face vot­ers at the polls.

“These pres­i­den­tial­ly ap­point­ed sen­a­tors pound­ed no pave­ment, shook no hands and faced no pub­lic scruti­ny to en­joy the perks of sen­a­tor­ship. The least they can do is en­dure some cri­tique of an ob­vi­ous­ly evil de­ci­sion to not sup­port the UNC's war on crime and crim­i­nals,” she said.

How­ev­er, LATT not­ed in its state­ment that no mem­ber of the Sen­ate is di­rect­ly elect­ed. Un­der the con­sti­tu­tion­al arrange­ment, 16 sen­a­tors are ap­point­ed on the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter, six on the ad­vice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader and nine by the Pres­i­dent.

John al­so ques­tioned the in­de­pen­dence of the In­de­pen­dent Bench, point­ing to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo’s pre­vi­ous as­so­ci­a­tion with the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) be­fore be­com­ing Head of State.

She ar­gued that when In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors vote in a man­ner the Gov­ern­ment con­sid­ers con­sis­tent with po­si­tions tak­en by the Op­po­si­tion, the Prime Min­is­ter and mem­bers of the pub­lic are en­ti­tled to ques­tion their de­ci­sions.

John al­so brand­ed LATT “elit­ist” and ac­cused the as­so­ci­a­tion of on­ly now find­ing its voice af­ter re­main­ing silent on is­sues un­der the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion.