TNN 78
Ay people, ah nex’ one start… so is TNN dong de line for ah nex' year… an’ (deep voice)…Dis is TNN…. Doh back back on me…doh back back…. (background music..Sparrow)
Jumpstation: Tobago love; Spring cleaning; No.. Prime Minister; Tantie Murie gone.
Well, suddenly everybody love Tobago like ah greedy man
like he belly… Man, Tobago House of (Dis)Assembly elections coming up in 2 weeks time… in de ring we have PEP, PNM, UNC
and NAR. More party dan we had in national elections!
Ah t’ink dey should let de poor Tobagonians vote twice..! Ah
mean, it eh fair man.. how yuh go choose from 4 parties?!
An’ each one have ah stake… PEP eh get no seat in Tobago for national elections, so dis is dey las’ chance or else fade like de mist… NAR only have one seat now in government since dey lose dey odder seat to de PNM. PNM need to have ah strong showing to back up de one seat dey get after 24 years in Tobago an’ if dey get de majority, den dey could pressure de UNC from over in Tobago…
Now Manday decide…
if de priest could play, who is me?! An’ like ah crapaud, he jump in de race too.. he say too long Tobago neglected an’ is time for Central government to step in… He did say he wasn’t running in de general elections in Tobago, because he didn’t want to split votes, but now for some reason he running in de locals…politicians is somet’ing else, yes… so he eh go split votes dis time.. some people say he doin' dis to wipe out Robbie, who he eh on de bes’ terms wit’ now… an’ yuh know Robbie was ah NAR…eh?
Well, me eh know what is de story, but wey it have smoke it have fire..
an’ is plenty heat in de sister isle dis rounds… de “Vote for Me” goin’
like dis…
PNM.. Maddening say vote PNM, since the reason Tobago eh
get dey fair share is because dey eh vote PNM for 24 years, an’ in fact de bes’
years Tobago had was when de PNM was in charge of de THA, is only ole mas since
dey leave.
UNC… dis government give de most money to de THA, more
dan any odder government and Hochoy and he honchos jus’ waste de money, dat is
why Tobago eh “up dey”…so let de Central government come in an’ work de
t’ing properly.
NAR….. Dey fraid Hochoy Charles, because dey know he
is one man (wit’ he one seat dat dey cyah control, so dey want to drive him
out.. furthermore de money dey ask for dey doh get, because de UNC government
tryin’ to make dem look bad.
PEP….. none ah dem eh care bout alyuh.. even alyuh
Tobago boy, Hochoy misspending de
money… so put some pep in yuh step, an’ vote dem in!
Yep, dat is what Australia do de WI
in de las’ Test match…. dey whitewash dem!
Man, ah t’ink we jus’ manage to make it to de Fifth day, de writing
was on de wall (in permanent marker) an’ de inevitable was to follow…. we
tail enders wag for ah while, but to no avail…. was like sardine swimming
wit’ shark! Cannon fodder!
Cockroach in fowl backyard! Licks like rain (an’ some heavy showers too!).
We jus’ manage to escape from Zimbabwe (dey second team), because we was dong to we las'’wicket….I eh boddering to give any comment again for de season.. ah go jus’ tell yuh wha’ happenin’, because ah tired see big men get out de same way, everytime… like wood break in dey ears…. dey doh hear and dey cyah listen apparently! Well, those who doh hear will feel… an’ dey really feeling it now….!
Alyuh remember de British comedy “Yes, Prime
Minister”? Well, is like we have ah sequel… what ah place?! Alyuh dat
was de firs’ sign dat Carnival reach! Check it out below……. change
de language….. come wit’ it..!
As I suppose practically every living soul in the
Caribbean knows by now, the President has refused to install 7 Senators against
the advice of the Prime Minister. This has led to something of a stalemate, or
checkmate depending oh how you look at it.
What are the issues?
Well, the Constitution is quite clear that the President
shall (“shall” meaning “must” in legal jargon I am told) appoint as
advised by the Prime Minister, the ruling party’s nominations to the Senate.
The ruling party has 16 nominations, the Opposition, 6 and the President
(the Independent Senators) 9. In essence the President appears to be in direct
contradiction with the law and the Constitution which he has sworn to uphold.
For his part , the President has stated that since the
seven were in fact losing MPs he would not be a party to appointing these to the
Senate since it goes against the grain of representation which is in fact the
soul of the Constitution as it were. Further
the Prime Minister wanted them sworn in as Junior Ministers, which would have
meant that 7 people who lost at the polls would have been assisting in running
the day to day affairs of the country and even being able to represent the
country (at the Minister’s request) even though they were rejected at the
polls. This appears to fly in the
face of the electorate, this being further seen in the present Speaker of the
House who was a badly beaten candidate and yet presides over the House of
Representatives which contains publicly
nominated members!
We are given to understand that the PM has said “Okay,
just Senators, not Junior Ministers”, but that has not cut any ice.
“What is to stop them from being appointed Ministers in the future, and
the consequence that we may in fact have a Cabinet which is made up in the
majority of losing candidates, of people rejected by the electorate, yet running
the country?” questions the President.
So a standoff has
ensued. The President to date has
stuck to his guns as has the PM. There
have been calls for CARICOM intervention, which is unnecessary as far as I see
it; we can solve this internally. Are
other people now going to interpret our Constitution for us?
What is my view? Well
the law is clear, the President “shall”…. however are we now faced with the
other side of the coin. If the
President is in fact correct about the law being abused, is the “letter of the
law” to be followed if it goes against
the principle which the law was made to enshrine? So both persons have a plank to stand on.
Which moves us to the next question ...does the President have the
authority to refuse the PM? The law states that the President, acting in his
capacity cannot be brought before the law courts, as apparently it MAY provide
for the instance where the President goes against the wishes of the PM…is it
fact a safeguard so that the President can check the abuse of the law by the PM
and not be punished? In other words, if the PM wants to put his wife, outside
woman, children, cousin, brother and their Pompek into the Senate, are the
President’s hands tied? The law
courts will have to determine that.
A principle of democracy is that NO ONE has absolute
power, there must be a check in the system.
The President is checked by the Senate and the House of Representatives
because they can remove him by a two thirds majority vote, but who in fact
checks the PM? Does he have ABSOLUTE power to appoint, or is the President
supposed to check him? Who checks
the PM? Is this a flaw in the
Constitution that we have to wait 5 years before the PM can be checked by the
electorate? In a perfect
world he would be checked by his Cabinet (yeah, in a parallel Universe!).
Before I end, is it unethical to appoint someone who has lost to the
Senate? My opinion is to avoid
doing so as far as possible. The
law allows for persons who have not contested to be brought into the Senate; if
you are unsure whether a candidate will win, but you want that person in your
government, then please let them stay out of the race.
This is what has us in this mess in the first place!
How do we go past this impasse? Well, the government now has a Minority in the Senate and a
Majority in the House of Representatives…most strange! Mr. PM and Mr. Prez. will have to come to an agreement which
may entail the following…. Allow one, maximum two of the defeated candidates
to be appointed and give a guarantee that none will be appointed to a Junior
Minister or Ministerial capacity over the next 5 years.
Allow the Opposition the same facility to appoint two defeated candidates
if they want to. Get a
guarantee that a law will be passed that will allow no more than 2 defeated
candidates will be appointed to the Senate by any party with the same
restrictions applying in terms of appointments. More than two is going to open the door for anarchy and
confusion. That way both issues
will be resolved.
Yes, it was wit’ sadness dat we learned that Muriel Donowa McDavidson (Fatima Ali) died yesterday from bone cancer. A worker, if there ever was one…Tantie Murie was with the PNM since Pre-Independence, to Independence, to Republicanism, to the defeat of the PNM at the hands of the NAR and having fallen out wit’ Patrick Manning (who hasn’t?!) supported the UNC in the las’ polls.
Lived and died in politics.. serve at all levels.. an’ was always approachable, considerate, never cocky and fiercely loyal to her party. It was hard not to like Murie, no matter who side yuh was on… always well decked, well spoken and doin’ her bes’ to help an’ perform wherever she was placed.
She was always dey to len’ ah helping han’ and was responsible for the power that the PNM Women’s League once had. Her name was never called in corruption, she never cuss out anybody, simple and diligent, from de ole school….deserving of a national award for service to country and fellowman (woman)… ah wonder if she ever get one? So goodbye to Tantie…… condolences to de family from TNN….
That’ all for dis week folks…. remember any queries, questions, comments, ole talk, hail outs, etc., just write to we anchorman Cobra at ttcobra1@hotmailcom an’ we go get back to alyuh! Soraya de writin’ good! Ah gone….Peace…! Sa sa yai…..sa sa yai….(background music)
The web editor would like to extend birthday
greetings tuh de Cobra and would also like to wish him a happy and healthy Y2K+1
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