Four members of civil society delivered a proposal to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's office yesterday in an attempt to intervene in the impasse between the Government and the Highway Re-route Movement over the Mon Desir section of the Point Fortin Highway. The four groups are:
• The Joint Consultative Council (JCC)?
• The T&T?Transparency Institute
• The Women Working for Social Progress (Working Women)
• The Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGO's (Fitun).
President of JCC Afra Raymond said yesterday the proposal was based on the restoration of public trust, because public trust was being slowly eroded on all sides. In March this year, the Highway Re-Route Movement and environmental activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh asked the Government for an independent technical review on the Mon Desir section of the Point Fortin Highway.
Kublalsingh has spent the last 14 days on a hunger strike in an attempt to get Persad-Bissessar to provide such a review to the public. "We have asked the Prime Minister for an early response (within 48 hours)," Raymond said. Raymond said the key element of the proposal was the requirement of an independent review of the contentious matters raised by Kublalsingh and the Highway Re-route Movement.
"If an independent review exists, and that is in question, then it can be immediately published. "If it does not exist we are calling for one to be created and we have outlined a process for the creation of an independent review of the matters in dispute within three months," Raymond told the media.
The proposal also suggested that Independent senator James Armstrong be appointed to chair the review committee. "We are asking for sober, urgent consideration of this matter in the interest of saving human life and restoring some stability and public confidence at this very important moment in the country."
Raymond said public trust was slipping way. "We need to restore public trust...That's what this is about," he said. "What we are seeing is a dwindling emphasis on merits and the facts when settling a dispute. We have long-term development taking place and being driven by short term considerations." He said when the highway was built, it would be there for the next 100 years.
Raymond along with Fitun president Joseph Remy and Working Women Convener Merle Hodge also presented the proposal to Kublalsingh, who continued day 14 of his hunger strike outside the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair. Hodge said she was concerned about the "abusive" responses of members of the Government who she said were responding to criticism with character assassination.
"Their language is abusive and it is violent and that is not a good model for young people. I come from an organisation that is devoted to building a culture of peace and a part of that is the way we handle children and how we view them. "They are presenting them with violence. Violence takes many forms," said Hodge. Remy said prolonging the verbal abuse in public would not help the society.
"We are going down a slippery slope very fast. We are sliding downwards and I am not sure if we can recover if this thing is not brought to an amicable resolution." He said the group hoped the PM would let good sense prevail and that she would not take strength from "that disaster that took place in Debe" on Monday with respect to the character assassination of citizens.
Remy said he hoped Persad-Bissessar would allow sober minds to intervene in the process so that Kublalsingh, the Government and the citizens of T&T could be satisfied at the end of the day. "Let us get independent expert minds in this process and lay it out in the public domain and I think Dr Kublalsingh and the Government should agree to accept the outcome of this, which is what he has been calling for all along.
"Let us have an independent review and not fold up in your hands a one-sided report that was done for and on behalf of the government, by the government and say that is independent." While they had no commitment from either side, Raymond said he was hopeful for a resolution.
About James Armstrong
James Armstrong is a development planner. He possesses a first degree in environmental design, a master's degree in urban and regional planning from Columbia University and a Ph.D in developmental Planning from the University of Nairobi.
• A former vice-president of the Commonwealth Association of Planners.
• A former a senior technical advisor at UN Habitat and is a current member of the National Trust.
•Was appointed as an independent senator in June 2010 by President George Maxwell Richards.
• Also an executive member of the T&T?Art Society.