In the Tom and Jerry politics of Trinidad and Tobago, it’s almost never acknowledged that two things can be true at once. Christine Kangaloo’s nomination to the presidency by then prime minister Dr Keith Rowley was problematic, even provocative. On the other hand, the Government’s recent sharp attacks on the legislative integrity of the independent senators that President Kangaloo appointed were improper, unseemly and unfair.
In nominating the attorney and President of the Senate to be the President in 2023, Rowley was presenting to the electoral college someone deeply entangled in his party, and who’d served in a number of offices of the PNM government. She’d acted as President on several occasions–as the president of the Senate does–but it did not mean that she was a prudent choice to hold the higher office permanently.
This is not a slight against Kangaloo–intelligent, magisterial and who, frankly, looks born to the role. Understandably, the President did not have the trust of the UNC then, and she does not have it now. Even if she interprets her presidential brief conscientiously and acts fastidiously straight down the middle, past and perception can never be erased.
Perception matters in all areas. Renowned English umpire Dickie Bird operated at a time when home umpires stood in international matches. Visiting players liked and trusted Bird. Other umpires, such as Fred Goodall of New Zealand, became enmeshed in controversy, with visiting players accusing them of bias. Trust in umpire Bird remained even when the visitors disagreed with a decision that Bird gave in favour of an England player.
Cricket’s governing body, the ICC, understood that the stakes were too high and the perception of neutrality was too important to continue to have home umpires stand. Over time, they introduced neutral umpires; strengthened adjudication with a TV umpire, a match referee and Decision Review System (DRS) technology. Those measures did not eliminate mistakes, but they went a long way towards restoring trust in decision-making.
Government officials employed the Orwellian argument that independent senators should prove their independence by rubber-stamping legislation from a governing party with a huge parliamentary majority, the Prime Minister’s Pension (Amendment) Bill, 2025. We can never know how many of the independent senators who voted for the legislation did so because of the heavy pressure of the attacks, or out of genuine conviction that it was sound. The pained looks on their faces during the televised voice vote suggest that the attacks got to them. Those who did not support it should have had the legislative courage to vote “no”. Their own arguments suggested that they had a duty to.
I’m not a lawyer, but to paraphrase US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in Jacobellis v Ohio in 1964, even those of us who have rudimentary powers of analytical thinking ought to recognise bad law when we see it. The law seems destined for the Privy Council, likely through proxy challenge.
With Stuart Young, the problem wasn’t the fix. The principle of a tiered system of benefits is sound and sensible. It was the retroactive reach-back that clearly targeted him. Look, I don’t like it that a PM as short-tenured as Young can get full whack after six weeks in office, but here’s how I look at things. Young didn’t set out to be PM for a month and a half. He sought a longer mandate on April 28, but the electorate had other ideas.
Benefits and the qualification principles underlying them sometimes come under scrutiny. For (imperfect) example, the 26-year-old wife of the 86-year-old billionaire should not have to forfeit her legal entitlement to a share of his estate upon his death, because she’d only been married to him for a short time.
There’s a probability of the law lords administering a judicial slap on the T&T Government when the inevitable appeal makes its way to their docket. Liz Truss was prime minister of Britain for seven weeks. The Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer did not try to strong-arm her out of her benefits.
The irony of all of this is that Rowley, a scientist, engineered the ascension of both Young and Kangaloo. Both actions collided in the Senate last week.