On the 49th an­niver­sary of Re­pub­lic Day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar called for ur­gent re­forms to strength­en T&T’s democ­ra­cy, not­ing that the foun­da­tions of the Re­pub­lic re­main flawed.

“Since 1976, our Re­pub­li­can Con­sti­tu­tion has con­cen­trat­ed ex­ces­sive pow­er in the of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and weak­ened so-called in­de­pen­dent in­sti­tu­tions, which were of­ten ap­point­ed by a Pres­i­dent be­hold­en to the rul­ing par­ty,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She ar­gued that these flaws have un­der­mined checks and bal­ances, lim­it­ing fair­ness and ac­count­abil­i­ty in gov­er­nance.

Trac­ing past re­form ef­forts, the Prime Min­is­ter high­light­ed the UNC gov­ern­ment’s in­tro­duc­tion of the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act, the Ju­di­cial Re­view Act, and the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Act be­tween 1995 and 2000.

She al­so point­ed to her ad­min­is­tra­tion’s mod­erni­sa­tion of Par­lia­ment dur­ing her first tenure, in­clud­ing the in­tro­duc­tion of Prime Min­is­ter’s Ques­tions, pro­por­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion in lo­cal gov­ern­ment, and land­mark pro­cure­ment re­forms. Each ini­tia­tive, she said, aimed to en­sure democ­ra­cy gen­uine­ly em­pow­ers all cit­i­zens.

“To­day, we must re­new the in­de­pen­dence of our state in­sti­tu­tions to dri­ve fair­ness, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and progress, so that fu­ture gen­er­a­tions in­her­it a Re­pub­lic de­fined by free­dom and equal op­por­tu­ni­ty for all,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar added.