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OWTU SPEAKS 2005-02-28
Good evening and welcome to the ‘OWTU Speaks’. We make another call today, for the Government and Parliament to establish a Joint Select Committee of both Houses – the House of Representatives and the Senate – to receive public comments in its consideration of the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2004. the authorities will be well advised to not jettison our otherwise good practice of direct public involvement, sometimes, in the law making process. We intimated earlier, our view, that the Parliament, in small democracies such as ours, enhances its own relevance and deepens its representative foundations when, from time to time, it invites the intervention and advice of the ordinary citizen and his community organization and interest group on matters of serious import.
Our call again today follows the expressions of concern by members of the OWTU’s General Council which met in statutory session last Saturday – February 26th. Our General Council unanimously acclaimed the statement which I made via this programme last Monday and which was rerun last Friday.
We have not hesitated to repudiate and condemn the actions of the mercenaries – soldiers of fortune – in an earlier time nor are we sympathetic with the missions of those who today are perpetrating ‘terrorist acts’ against the innocent. But, to avoid ambiguity there must be a very clear definition of a ‘terrorist act’. We are not prepared to accept the vacuous platitudes of Masters of Law nor Servants of the art of equivocation.
We are in full subscription to effecting Trinidad and Tobago’s international obligations to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 that was adopted in the aftermath of 911. we are however not supportive of any attempt to adversely affect the constitutional rights and civil liberties of the citizen. We do not have to copy the United States of America as much as we wish to not offend that super-power.
I listened to some parts of the interview with Junior Security Minister on Radio 102 yesterday and at the end of it I was more concerned about what the Bill did not say (and can mean) than that which it reveals. Of course, the interviewer volunteered less than a fair chance for Mr. Hinds to make his point but a careful examination of how the thing went suggests to me that the Honorable Junior Minister really had no point to make and relished the opportunity to conceal the danger in the Bill’s general purport in obscurity. There are some twelve international conventions and protocols to which the Bill refers and about which the national community must be properly informed. These are not matters for the government only nor even our sixty-seven (67) MP’s and Senators only. In the final analysis, it is the country at large and the ordinary citizen and worker who will be most affected by the legislative measure which will question our political, ideological, religious and trade union causes.
Neither alone in that regard. There is news that Mr. Tony Blair faces some bruising over anti-terror laws in good old England. The British too do not fancy their having to dance to the American’s drum beat.
So if the priest could rebel – who is we?
Allow the people to comment – Mr. Minister.
Have a good evening people – Think We and Love and Support T&T.
I am Errol Mc Leod for the OWTU Speaks.
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OWTU SPEAKS 21-02-05
We have not had adequate opportunity to examine the Anti-Terrorism Bill which the Hose of Representatives seemed to have hastily passed by an ordinary majority late Friday night last. We are suspicious! We do not trust the indecent haste with which this piece of legislation was hustled in the lower house. There is a toxic smell to the Government’s modus-operandi in this one. Could it be the odour of the extinguishing agent which they might have used to put out the burning fuse on the few socio-politically incendiary issues which are haunting the Administration? Or, did want to show OAS members attending a Conference on Terrorism here in Trinidad that we were doing homework which Washington had dictated for us as part of our US organized junior state school curriculum? We ought not to accept that! We must not accept that! And I take this stand at the risk of my being identified as a terrorist, based on the fact only that as a Trade Unionist I oppose the Government’s Anti-Terrorist Bill in its present form. Indeed, when the OWTU took legal strike action against the University of the West Indies in March 1998 we were severely critized by the political directorate then in office and my union leadership cited as ‘terrorist’ by the St Augustine Campus Principal. It is not lightly that we trust the politicians. Not after some grievous experiences which we have had in dealings with them.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister must come clean with the citizenry and civil society organizations. We heard Junior Security Minister, Fitzgerald Hinds yesterday but that is not sufficient. Prime Minister is competent at assuaging the anxieties of a restless people when he is moved sufficiently to do so. It I sour reasonable request that the Prime Minister sees the appropriateness of his directing, as another measure of his statesmanship, that the Bill be put out for public comment and that a Joint Select Committee of both Houses be established to consider the Bill. It is not too late for such an intervention but in any case, our democracy will be better served and our politics i.e. the national politics made more mature by the adoption of our proposal for public consultation and debate.
The definition of a ‘terrorist act’ has to be made clear – absolutely clear – superlatively clear. It could not conceal ambiguities about political, ideological, religious, trade union and other accustomed legitimate causes and not have implications, even subliminally, for the rights and freedoms of the people and workers particularly.
We must call for engagement, as a sovereign people and national community, in serious, constructive and informed dialogue and debate about the legislative prescriptions which are necessary to combat ‘terrorism.’ We must not set up ourselves by jumping in and out of time to somebody else’s drumming. Yes, we must recognized our international obligations but let us not infringe the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed our people.
The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union as a constituent part of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGO’s join others in the necessary call for the Government and Parliament to appoint a Joint Select Committee of both Houses to consider the Anti-Terrorism Bill and to receive the views and comments of citizens and people’s organizations.
Have a Good Evening. Think WE and LOVE and Support Trinidad and Tobago.
I am Errol Mc Leod for eth OWTU Speaks.