Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Prof Hamid Ghany says the de­ci­sion to split the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in­to two dis­tinct port­fo­lios—Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and De­fence—is con­sis­tent with Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s long-stand­ing po­si­tion while in op­po­si­tion.

“She has been talk­ing about this for quite a few years now,” Ghany told re­porters fol­low­ing the swear­ing in of the new Cab­i­net. “Her phi­los­o­phy was that the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was too large for a sin­gle min­is­ter to han­dle.”

Roger Alexan­der was named Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, while Wayne Sturge was sworn in as Min­is­ter of De­fence.

Ghany said the di­vi­sion al­lows for the sep­a­ra­tion of re­spon­si­bil­i­ties such as polic­ing, im­mi­gra­tion and the pass­port of­fice from the De­fence Force and Coast Guard.

“That, I think, is the key dif­fer­ence she was aim­ing for,” he said.

He added that the spe­cif­ic re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of each min­istry will be out­lined in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gazette in the com­ing weeks.

“That will tell you what the spe­cif­ic port­fo­lio al­lo­ca­tion is all about,” Ghany said.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so fol­lowed through on cam­paign promis­es dur­ing her post-swear­ing-in speech, in­clud­ing a pledge to re­peal the Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty Act.

“That has been one of the ma­jor points of dis­agree­ment be­tween the UNC and the PNM in the pre­vi­ous Par­lia­ment,” Ghany said. “It looks as though she wants to keep those promis­es.”

Oth­er com­mit­ments ref­er­enced in the Prime Min­is­ter’s ad­dress in­clud­ed pro­posed stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion, the clas­si­fi­ca­tion of home in­va­sions as a spe­cif­ic of­fence, and new reg­u­la­tions to make it eas­i­er for law-abid­ing cit­i­zens to ob­tain firearms.

Ghany al­so com­ment­ed on the num­ber of par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries named. “Ac­cord­ing to the Con­sti­tu­tion, they are ap­point­ed to as­sist min­is­ters,” he said. “It ap­pears the Prime Min­is­ter is us­ing that op­tion to sup­port per­for­mance.”

He drew a com­par­i­son to for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young’s pro­pos­al. “Dur­ing the cam­paign, Stu­art Young spoke about set­ting up a ded­i­cat­ed min­istry to fo­cus on per­for­mance and de­liv­ery,” Ghany said. “What Per­sad-Bisses­sar has done in­stead is to make use of ex­ist­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al tools, ap­point­ing par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries to sup­port min­is­ters di­rect­ly. It’s a dif­fer­ent ap­proach to the same goal.”

Com­ment­ing on the fact that no min­is­ter has yet been named for the Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism while Col­in Neil Go­sine was named Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism, Ghany said this was not un­usu­al.

“Yes, we’ve seen that kind of thing hap­pen be­fore. If a min­is­ter is not present, you wait for them to come back to take the oath. You have to ac­tu­al­ly be phys­i­cal­ly present with the Pres­i­dent to take the oath and re­ceive the in­stru­ment of ap­point­ment.”