18.12.01

MEDIA STATEMENT BY THE GROUP OF INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONS AND NGO’S on 18-18 

In the Open Letter by the Group of Independent Trade Unions to the leaders of the PNM and the UNC and the President of the Republic issued immediately after the 18-18 General Election result and prior to the finalisation of the "10 point" Agreement between the two political leaders, we stated the following:

§ "There are moments in a nation’s life when accidents of history happen, which accidents create space for new and progressive possibilities for that nation’s development. At the same time, these moments can lead to calamity. The accidents that give rise to that historic moment are largely outside of the individual will of the key actors on the nation’s stage. However, the decisions made by these principal figures more often than not will determine whether the nation takes a leap forward or descends into disaster."

§ The 18-18 tie created both the possibility for major progress and for serious disaster. We therefore counselled the leaders of the PNM and the UNC and all elected representatives to ensure that the nation avoided disaster by putting "country before party and self". We advised that they should "act with good sense and maturity" and urged "civil society to also act responsibly and to seek to ensure that coming out of the present crisis there emerges better governance, namely a more participatory democracy and accountability and transparency in public affairs."

§ It is now abundantly clear that our words of advice and warning were not heeded. We are therefore in grave danger of not only blowing the opportunity for progress but our leaders are actually setting the stage for unmitigated disaster.

§ In particular, we refer to the decision by the UNC Members of Parliament to abandon the "10 point" agreement on grounds that can only be considered a legal smokescreen. We deplore both their reneging on the agreement made by their own political leader and their scurrilous attack on the President. We more particularly condemn the rude, crude and abominable manner in which Sat Maharaj and other sycophants assailed His Excellency, the President.

§ His Excellency unambiguously stated that he had wanted the two leaders to decide amongst themselves as to who should be the Prime Minister given the 18-18 tie. They refused to even try to discuss the issue and both men publicly and in writing stated that they would abide by the President’s decision. The UNC cannot now claim that the President acted unconstitutionally and that therefore the Manning government is illegitimate.

§ What is worse, and indeed unpardonable, is for the UNC and now religious organisations to impute racial and religious motives to the President’s decision. These statements must be condemned for what they really are – a naked appeal on ethnic lines for protests against the President and the government that he just installed.

§ We warn all political and civil society leaders that we are now on a slippery slope of ethnic confrontation as has happened in Guyana. Once we start to go down that road it is a very long and painful climb out. All citizens must resist such calls by leaders, for they are neither acting in the interest of citizens of the country as a whole. They only seek to protect their own power and position.

§ At the same time, we strongly advise Mr. Manning, as we counselled after the election, that his appointment as Prime Minister does not mean that he has any mandate to implement either a "PNM" or a "personal" agenda.

§ Mr. Manning must see his government as a Caretaker with a mandate only to: establish Commissions of Enquiry into Corruption, clean up the EBC and the electoral lists, initiate a process of Constitutional Reform, reconstruct the Boards of State Enterprises and Statutory Bodies on a non partisan basis and begin a review of all major government policies with civil society playing a pivotal role in that process, and generally to establish good government.

§ Governance in an 18-18 situation requires the building of consensus. Both the leader of the PNM and the leader of the UNC should be capable of rising above their own personal self-interest to embark on consensus building. This must not, be a matter of personal rivalry. The country’s future is at stake! People’s lives are at stake! We therefore once again publicly urge them and all elected Members of Parliament, and leaders of political parties and civil society organisations to act responsibly.

§ We insist that leaders must not place the entire society in jeopardy for their own self-interest or that of their party.

Errol K. Mc Leod

President General

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THE GROUP OF INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONS AND NGOS

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO AND THE LEADERS OF THE PNM AND UNC:

OUR PROPOSALS FOR THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE REPUBLIC IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE 18-18 TIE

(NOTE: The Independent Trade Unions and NGOs sought meetings with His Excellency Arthur N.R. Robinson, President of the Republic, The Honourable Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition so that we could offer them our proposals on the way forward for the nation. Both the President and the Leader of the Opposition readily agreed to meet with us and those meetings have taken place. We have since sent them our proposals in writing. The Prime Minister asked to see the proposals before meeting. We have also sent the proposals and now await a meeting)A 

CRITICAL MOMENT IN OUR HISTORY

There are particular moments in a nation’s life when accidents of history happen, which accidents create space for new and progressive possibilities for that nation’s development. At the same time, these moments can lead to calamity. The accidents that give rise to that historic moment are largely outside of the individual will of the key actors on the nation’s stage. However, the decisions made by these principal figures more often than not will determine whether the nation takes a leap forward or descends into disaster.

Such a moment is now. The result of the December 10th, 2001 General Election, where both the Peoples National Movement and the United National Congress won eighteen (18) seats in our 36 seat Parliament left neither party with a majority. While this appears to be a constitutional and political crisis we also have an opportunity to develop a better system of governance in our Republic.

At the beginning of October we also faced a crucial moment as a result of the collapse of the government due to the loss of three its members who declared that they no longer supported the Prime Minister. At that time, our Group sought to intervene by way of specific proposals for the formation of a Caretaker Government which would have served for a limited period and with a clearly defined mandate.

We proposed this approach rather than the option of a General Election because of serious concerns that we had about the integrity of the Electoral Lists and the ability of the Elections and Boundaries Commission to prepare an accurate list in time for an election in 2001. Given the numerous problems experienced by voters on Monday December 11th, we believe that the position that we took in October has been substantially vindicated.

GOING BACK TO THE POLLS NOW WILL NOT SOLVE ANYTHING.

However, while the "crisis" of the collapse of the then government in October could have been resolved by a General Election, we do not believe that the present "crisis" of an 18-18 tie can be resolved by any hasty return to the polls. Our position is based on:

1. The fact that the EBC is in need of major change and further, that the Electoral Lists do not have integrity. This point was strongly made by the Caricom Observer Team which stated, inter alia, "this problem (the large number of omissions from the voters’ list) is a cause for serious concern in terms of the credibility and fairness of the electoral process". It is very doubtful whether the EBC can prepare a "clean" list in time for an election that would be held in March 2002. Further, it would be putting our democracy under severe test to have yet another election, the legitimacy of which is under question. This is a chance that we ought not to take.

2. The fact that another election may not yield a substantially different result from 18-18, given the alignment of support for each party.

3. The fact that the population may not wish to be drawn into a third General Election within the short period of 15 months.

CIVIL SOCIETY MUST INTERVENE

We believe it to be our duty of civil society to intervene in the present political/constitutional crisis. The politicians must not be allowed to decide the nation’s fate. We all must be responsible for the future of the Republic. It is to be noted that our Group has consistently intervened over the past year at moments when we believed that the governance of our country required the strong and independent voice of civil society. These interventions have ranged from public statements on crucial issues to public forums on the need for constitutional reform to public meetings and demonstrations.

We decided to make our position and proposals on the way forward known to the leaders of the two Parliamentary parties, the Peoples National Movement and the United National Congress, so that they may consider all the options for solving the "crisis" and appreciate that civil society demands that they place the interests of the nation before the interest of holding on to or gaining office.

We have also offered our proposals to the President so as to afford His Excellency the benefit of the views of a very important section of civil society. We are all aware of the fact that, according to the Constitution, it is the President who must make the decision as to who should be appointed as Prime Minister, one of the key issues in the resolution of the "predicament" posed by the 18-18 tie.

In the final analysis, however, the citizens of the country must take responsibility for the future of the Republic and therefore we are making our statement known to the public generally. We shall also engage in a process of information, discussion, education and organization of civil society around the principles on which our proposals have been formulated.

THE COLECTIVE WISDOM OF THE PEOPLE

We believe that in the 18-18 tie is to be found the "collective wisdom" of the citizenry. The 18-18 tie means that our people have rejected adversarial politics as is traditionally practiced. It also rejects the culture and practice of "winner take all", whereby all the power is exercised by the party that wins, a power that is further concentrated in the hands of a very few leaders within the victorious party. In our system, everyone but the winner is effectively excluded from power.

We must now have the politics of consensus replacing the adversarial politics of "winner take all". Put another way, the country requires a non-partisan approach to governance. This is also because neither of the parties has a mandate to implement any major policies. Neither the UNC nor the PNM could get no more than 30% of the electorate to support them. This means that none can claim that the majority of the population has any confidence in their leadership. It also means that we don’t want to leave our future solely in the hands of the politicians. Civil society must play an active role in governance, and particularly at this time.

A MECHANISM TO ESTABLISH A FUNCTIONAL GOVERNMENT

Given the 18-18 tie, any attempt to appoint the leader of one party as Prime Minister without the agreement of the leader of the other party will end in the rapid collapse of the government since it will not have a majority in Parliament. If a party seeks to get a majority by inducing people to cross the floor, this would be nothing but degenerate and opportunistic politics.

We therefore need to find mechanisms that would allow for a functioning government to be in place for a reasonable period of time. This time would allow for changes to be made in the EBC and for a clean electoral list to be prepared.

OUR PROPOSALS IN THE INTEREST OF THE NATION

1.That there be a Caretaker Government comprised of persons from both the PNM and UNC who were elected on December 10th to be Members of the House of Representatives

2. That the parties:

(a) Agree that this Caretaker Government should be limited in its work to the implementation of the programme as specified below, together with those functions of day to day administration for the health care, education, national security and other essential needs of the citizens and country

(b) Demonstrate that they are committed to place the interest of the nation before that of party or personal self interest by agreeing (i) to share the responsibilities of Cabinet (Executive) between the parties (if there is major controversy over a particularly important position e.g. Attorney General a neutral person could be appointed through the Senate); and (ii) to appoint representatives of civil society, rather than party loyalists, to the Senate, and allow these Senators to vote on the basis of their conscience and not on partisan lines.

(c )The appointed Prime Minister should serve for the duration of the period of the Caretaker Government

2. That this Caretaker Government holds office for a period of not more than eighteen months within which the following programme would be collectively implemented:

(a) The establishment of Commissions of Enquiry to investigate allegations of corruption with a view to implementing mechanisms that would ensure transparency and accountability in the government and state enterprises and to establish the evidence for the subsequent prosecution of any persons found to be involved in corruption

(b) The provision of all the necessary resources to ensure the integrity of the Electoral Lists and the charging of the Elections and Boundaries Commission with the responsibility to prepare a List that has integrity and to the satisfaction of all political parties and civil society.

(c) The passage of legislation to regulate campaign financing and ensure transparency with respect to donations to political parties.

(d) The reconstruction of all Boards of state enterprises and statutory bodies and state agencies in a manner that removes political party influence and Ministerial interference, and to ensure accountability of these bodies to Parliament. Such an objective can be achieved, for example, by the appointment of Board members who are the nominees of established, bona fide civil society organizations. In this regard, civil society organisations should be asked to submit a list of persons to serve on the various Boards. In addition, all state enterprises, government departments and statutory bodies should be subject to spot audits by independent forensic auditors.

(e) A moratorium on the sale or lease of any state enterprise, statutory body or state agency or part thereof (inclusive of land or other major assets either vested in the state or state enterprise).

(f) A genuinely participatory process of review of all major government policies. However, we are mindful that certain decisions on important projects may need to be made, and therefore any major policies decisions should be subject to consensus of the parties and scrutiny/discussion by civil society prior to implementation.

(g) Agreement on the need for a process of constitutional reform that is based, not on the establishment of a Constitutional Commission, but on the facilitating of the shaping of a constitution by the people through their civil society organizations.

3.On the basis of the above, for there to be new General Elections within eighteen months or as soon as agenda items 2 (a), (b), and (c) are implemented, whichever is earlier. And, further, that the Local Government Elections scheduled for June 2002 to be held only if there is in place the Electoral List that is to the satisfaction of the political parties and civil society as in 2 (b) above.

4.We further call on the present members of the Elections and Boundaries Commission to offer their resignations to His Excellency in order that public confidence could be restored in this crucial institution of democracy.

5. We further propose that in order to maintain stability and to avoid the intervention of partisan political interests early in the term of the Caretaker Government, it be agreed by the two Parliamentary parties that His Excellency Arthur N.R. Robinson be unanimously supported for re-election to the Presidency of the Republic.

6.Any appointments that must be made by the President after consultation with the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition (e.g. Chief Justice and DPP) should be made by the President after consulting the Prime Minster and the leader of the party who is not Prime Minister.

7. It is our respectful view that in order for the issue of corruption to be dealt with and appear to be dealt with in a just manner, it would be best if the person to be appointed as Prime Minister not to have been a member of the last government.

We believe that at this moment in our country’s history our elected representatives must put country before party and self, and act with good sense and maturity. We urge civil society to also act responsibly and to seek to ensure that coming out of the present crisis there emerges better governance, namely a more participatory democracy and accountability and transparency in all public affairs.

ALL PATRIOTIC CITIZENS AND ORGANISATIONS ARE INVITED

TO A NATIONAL PUBLIC FORUM

"THE WAY FORWARD FOR THE REPUBLIC"

WEDNESDAY 19TH DECEMBER

2.30PM

OWTU PARAMOUNT BUILDING, SAN FERNANDO

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