JENSEN LA VENDE
Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

For­mer head of the pub­lic ser­vice Reynold Coop­er and for­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith say there is no law that would man­date that Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine be part of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil (NSC).

They were re­spond­ing yes­ter­day to a call from Au­gus­tine that he, as Chief Sec­re­tary, be part of the NSC, af­ter the US in­stalled a radar at the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port with­out his knowl­edge.

As head of the NSC, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she had au­tho­rised the in­stal­la­tion of the radar sys­tem be­cause the ex­ist­ing radar ca­pa­bil­i­ty is in­ad­e­quate. She said she did not in­form Au­gus­tine be­cause he was not part of the NSC.

At a po­lit­i­cal ral­ly host­ed by his To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) on Tues­day night, Au­gus­tine said the so­lu­tion to this sce­nario is to change the law to en­sure To­ba­go has a seat on the NSC and a voice in de­ci­sions af­fect­ing To­ba­go.

Asked about Au­gus­tine join­ing the NSC yes­ter­day, Coop­er said: “There is no law gov­ern­ing the NSC. It is chaired by the PM, or in her ab­sence, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty. The PM can in­vite the Chief Sec­re­tary, but there is no law to change.”

Grif­fith agreed, say­ing the Chief Sec­re­tary, like the heads of pro­tec­tive ser­vices, can be in­vit­ed to join meet­ings, adding that the NSC copies from the British par­lia­ment.

“The British mod­el states em­phat­i­cal­ly that the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil is com­prised of a com­mit­tee from cab­i­net, so the on­ly peo­ple who could be in the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil could on­ly be cab­i­net mem­bers. The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil is a cab­i­net com­mit­tee, so un­for­tu­nate­ly, Mr Au­gus­tine, he prob­a­bly did not un­der­stand that.”

He said apart from the prime min­is­ter and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter, the NSC al­so in­cludes the at­tor­ney gen­er­al and “a few oth­ers.”

Some oth­er min­is­ters, de­pend­ing on the sea­son, may be in­vit­ed, he said. For ex­am­ple, Grif­fith said the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, dur­ing Car­ni­val, may be in­vit­ed to a NSC meet­ing.

“Al­most every sin­gle min­is­ter, and even the Chief Sec­re­tary of To­ba­go, could have some jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, be­cause some­thing will af­fect them. That is not how the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil is se­lect­ed.”

Com­ment­ing on the is­sue dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said there were meet­ings un­der for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley with the Chief Sec­re­tary in re­la­tion to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty is­sues. She said there has been no dis­cus­sion on a mem­ber of the Op­po­si­tion be­ing part of the NSC, like what hap­pens in the US with bi-par­ti­san meet­ings.

“It is not usu­al in our West­min­ster-style sys­tem for that to hap­pen, but what I have said is our Gov­ern­ment and the Op­po­si­tion. There is no rea­son why we can’t col­lab­o­rate on is­sues.”

She said there is no need for a per­ma­nent mem­ber of the Op­po­si­tion to be part of the NSC, but there is noth­ing stop­ping col­lab­o­ra­tion on spe­cif­ic is­sues.