“Free­dom is found­ed up­on re­spect for moral, eth­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al val­ues and the rule of law.” (Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct, TT)

Tues­day, June 30, will be In­ter­na­tion­al Day of Par­lia­men­tarism; cel­e­brat­ing “par­lia­ments and the ways in which par­lia­men­tary sys­tems of gov­ern­ment im­prove the day-to-day lives of peo­ple the world over. It is al­so an op­por­tu­ni­ty for par­lia­ments to take stock, iden­ti­fy chal­lenges, and ways to ad­dress them ef­fec­tive­ly.

“Strong par­lia­ments are a cor­ner­stone of democ­ra­cy. They rep­re­sent the voice of the peo­ple, pass laws, al­lo­cate funds to im­ple­ment laws and poli­cies, and hold gov­ern­ments to ac­count. They work to make sure that poli­cies ben­e­fit all peo­ple, es­pe­cial­ly the most vul­ner­a­ble, by pass­ing laws—for ex­am­ple—on vi­o­lence against women and en­sur­ing equal ac­cess to health care. Par­lia­ments al­so link in­ter­na­tion­al and na­tion­al agen­das, en­sur­ing that gov­ern­ments im­ple­ment in­ter­na­tion­al treaties and agree­ments that they sign up to...” (UN).

As the UN states, ro­bust par­lia­ments can heal di­vi­sions in so­ci­ety “through di­a­logue and co­op­er­a­tion.” Let’s not bury our heads in the sand in T&T and ac­cept that there are deep-root­ed di­vi­sions in our so­ci­ety based on race/eth­nic­i­ty. Thank God these di­vi­sions do not lead to ma­jor con­flicts as is the case in some oth­er coun­tries. Nev­er­the­less, un­less we seek to heal these di­vi­sions and build a strong, in­clu­sive democ­ra­cy, di­vi­sions will con­tin­ue to sim­mer be­neath the sur­face.

As we move in­to the var­i­ous po­lit­i­cal par­ties’ cam­paigns for the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, let’s all com­mit to the prin­ci­ples and val­ues out­lined in the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct which came in­to be­ing in Ju­ly 2014 and which was re­vised in June 2019. The Code has 4 clear ob­jec­tives: to fos­ter democ­ra­cy through peace­ful, free and fair elec­tions; to pro­mote re­spect for hu­man rights; to en­cour­age par­tic­i­pa­tion in the elec­toral process; and to pro­mote an elec­tion process free from vi­o­lence.

The Code can be ac­cessed via the web­site of the Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour: www.po­lit­i­calethic­stt.org. The Coun­cil, of which I am a Mem­ber, com­pris­es 9 mem­bers and is Chaired by Po­lit­i­cal Sci­en­tist, Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath. On 10 June the Coun­cil is­sued a Me­dia Re­lease in­form­ing the pub­lic that it “has be­gun its mon­i­tor­ing ac­tiv­i­ties to eval­u­ate all Po­lit­i­cal par­ties, can­di­dates and their sup­port­ers in the ad­her­ence to the Code of Eth­i­cal Po­lit­i­cal Con­duct.” Once again we will use moral sua­sion to en­cour­age all those en­gaged in the elec­tion cam­paign, in­ter alia, to:

· Main­tain the high­est moral prin­ci­ples and eth­i­cal stan­dards with re­spect to their con­duct;

· Pro­mote and en­forc­ing re­spect, tol­er­ance, har­mo­ny and peace amongst their sup­port­ers and the gen­er­al pub­lic.

· Re­frain from prac­tices that pro­mote di­vi­sive­ness in the So­ci­ety and com­mit to the re­moval of any struc­tures (be­hav­iour­al, cul­tur­al, so­cial or or­gan­i­sa­tion­al) which re­in­force di­vi­sive­ness.

· Con­fine their crit­i­cism of oth­er Po­lit­i­cal Par­ties to poli­cies and pro­grammes, past record and work.

· Up­hold the in­tegri­ty of the elec­toral process.

· En­sure that their con­duct is above re­proach.

As the Me­dia Re­lease not­ed, “...with­in the re­cent past, be­fore the start of its mon­i­tor­ing, there have al­ready been some ut­ter­ances which un­der­mine” the above com­mit­ments that are out­lined in the Code. Peace­ful co­ex­is­tence will be en­hanced if so­cial me­dia, and the me­dia in gen­er­al, is not used for name-call­ing by politi­cians/sup­port­ers of any par­ty against those of an­oth­er par­ty. Some Catholic Bish­ops have right­ly said, “Al­though elec­tions are not enough to en­throne good gov­er­nance, they are an im­por­tant stage in that project.”

As they com­pete for votes, sure­ly Po­lit­i­cal Par­ties and their can­di­dates who will be con­test­ing seats can use their God-giv­en tal­ents/in­ge­nu­ity to win sup­port and mo­ti­vate cit­i­zens to help them gain of­fice with­out re­sort­ing to un­be­com­ing be­hav­iour? Any par­ty wish­ing to tru­ly rep­re­sent the peo­ple in our coun­try and seek­ing to ad­vance their as­pi­ra­tions and de­fend their hu­man rights, must be com­mit­ted to the com­mon good — that is, the good of ALL per­sons, re­gard­less of their race, eth­nic­i­ty, ge­o­graph­i­cal ori­gin, gen­der etc.

Re­flect on Hen­ry Clay’s words: “Gov­ern­ment is a trust, and the of­fi­cers of the gov­ern­ment are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are cre­at­ed for the ben­e­fit of the peo­ple.” When those cam­paign­ing knock on your door, be pre­pared with your list of ques­tions to ask what ac­tion each one, if elect­ed, would take to im­prove the qual­i­ty of life in your com­mu­ni­ty and in the coun­try. Keep the cam­paign clean!