UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says the chairman of the Constitution Reform Advisory Committee, Barendra Sinanan, must now recuse himself after he recently endorsed the view that the Privy Council should be abolished.
Persad-Bissessar made the claim at Monday night’s UNC Cottage Meeting in Enterprise. She said the party would never support abolishing the Privy Council.
But yesterday, Sinanan a former speaker of the House of Representatives said he will not be leaving.
Persad-Bissessar dismissed Government’s Constitution Reform Committee, as “a pappyshow like so many of the 37 other gimmick committees they’ve imposed in eight years—nothing’s come of them ... it’s another pathetic PR gimmick. Imagine they went to the capital and only 21 people attended—not even their own PNM activists came”.
Saying she believed the PNM will base their general election campaign and manifesto on consultation inputs, she added “We will not go to this and we’ll never vote to abolish the Privy Council at this time.. Not at this time! I don’t trust this Government!”
Persad-Bissessar claimed she had heard the chairman of the committee on the radio recently.
“A chairman holding a consultation has to keep neutral ground—you don’t have to give your view. If you’re chairing you’re there to listen to people’s points. (And) on that radio programme the chairman openly endorsed abolishing the Privy Council! So you make up your mind already! You trump and follow suit the Attorney General who said move the Privy Council!”
She added, “You cannot be chairing and you’ve already made up your mind! So I’d ask the Government to reconsider and I’d ask that chairman—I know he’s a very decent human being, respectable lawyer he is, I think he knows what he has to do: he has to recuse himself.”
Contacted by Guardian Media yesterday, Sinanan said his personal opinions are in no way connected to the committee.
“I will not be stepping down. Assuming it was said, I would not have been speaking on behalf of the committee. Our mandate is very clear, you know. It’s not my opinion or what the opinion of any other member of the committee is, it’s what the committee tells us is what will be reflected in our terms of reference. So, whether I say A or B is immaterial; it’s what the people want.”
‘Dangerous attack on judges’
The UNC leader accused Government of holding the 2024 EBC Boundaries Report for almost a month and refusing to lay it in Parliament. The report was due to be submitted to the Prime Minister and House of Representatives Speaker by the EBC last month. Persad- Bissessar, who spoke about suppression of the matter in Parliament on March 18, said she’d written the EBC asking if the report was completed.
EBC’s CEO replied that since March 13, the report was completed and submitted to the Prime Minister and House Speaker on that same date.
Persad-Bissessar asked, “So what foolishness is Camille Robinson-Regis talking about, ‘acting PM’? Dr Rowley left T&T April 2!”
She said the Parliament met on March 15, March 18, and March 22, and at no time did the Government ever admit it had the report, nor was it laid in Parliament.
“It was only after I wrote the EBC and threatened legal action that an Order Paper surfaced last Friday for a sitting on Friday coming where the report is listed on that Order Paper.
“Both she and Faris Al-Rawi spoke total rubbish. Apparently they both didn’t know Rowley got the report on March 13. But they still haven’t set a date for debate on this. I’m again calling on Government to debate the report earliest.
“If the Rowley Government has once more, in this 2024 EBC report, used its influence to cause/and/or collude with the EBC to gerrymander and manipulate the boundaries to enable a PNM to win in the upcoming elections, this is unconstitutional, and the UNC will mount a legal challenge against any such move,” she warned.
Persad- Bissessar, who said a general election is coming since paving and other developments were occurring, added, “But what have you gotten from Government? Criminals are now using arson in addition to murder as a means of extorting business people ... She claimed the Government has lost control of T&T’s security.
“Criminals are locking people in their homes and burning them to death inside.”
She even predicted, “The SSA scandal will only get bigger... Information that has come to me is incredible. (Minister Fitzgerald) Hinds and (Prime Minister Dr Keith) Rowley cannot escape responsibility for this. This Government hijacked the SSA equipment and gave it to operatives in TTPS to do their bidding,” she added, citing a T&T Guardian article and noting her 2022 warning about Brent Thomas. She said eventually, the courts would have to decide on these matters.
Persad-Bissessar accused the Prime Minister of “a dangerous attack on judges,” with recent remarks. She said, “If you don’t like the judgment, don’t cuss the judge, you can appeal and then to the Privy Council.”
She said his reported comment that it is the Cabinet that sets the policy for the granting of Firearm Users’ Licences. (FULs) is wrong.
“He doesn’t understand the laws. Look at the Firearms Act, Chap. 16:01 that says the Police Commissioner has the sole discretion to issue a FUL.
“Is Rowley now alluding to an unspoken arrangement between the Government and the Commissioner, in which the Government has a say in who gets these licences? I call on the Commissioner to clear any doubts, since the independence of that public office is now questionable,” Persad-Bissessar added.