RYAN BA­CHOO

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

Through­out 60 years of T&T’s in­de­pen­dence, there have been six pres­i­dents.

The words of these pres­i­dents of­ten car­ry great weight and mean­ing.

From words of hope to in­tro­spec­tion, to ad­dress­ing crises that face the twin-is­land, pres­i­den­tial state­ments have been piv­otal.

As the Elec­toral Col­lege gets set to se­lect a new Pres­i­dent of T&T, Guardian Me­dia re­flects at some of the most fa­mous quotes from T&T’s six pres­i­dents.

Sir El­lis Clarke – Pres­i­dent from Au­gust 1, 1976 - March 19, 1987

“Up­on him was an ho­n­our thrust; he bore it light­ly.”

Clarke, T&T’s first Pres­i­dent in a 1987 in­ter­view with the Sun­day Guardian, when asked about an epi­taph for him­self.

Noor Has­sanali – Pres­i­dent from March 20, 1987 - March 17, 1997

“In my ad­dress­es, I al­ways use the phrase hu­man con­science. Once this fel­low con­science is in­side you, you can­not ig­nore him. He won’t let you rest. He just won’t let you.”

Pres­i­dent Noor Has­sanali, who was T&T’s sec­ond pres­i­dent. Has­sanali, who was T&T’s sec­ond Pres­i­dent.

ANR Robin­son - Pres­i­dent from March 18th, 1997 - March 17, 2003

“When a so­ci­ety re­mains free, when free­dom is found­ed on moral and spir­i­tu­al val­ues and the rule of law. I em­pha­sise – that the moral and spir­i­tu­al val­ues and the rule of law and it is against that back­ground, tak­ing in­to ac­count the oaths of of­fice of a mem­ber of par­lia­ment, a min­is­ter, and my du­ty as prime min­is­ter, I was about to come to a fi­nal de­ci­sion. It is a de­ci­sion that I would not nor­mal­ly want to have to take; where two peo­ple are con­cerned in such a po­si­tion.” – Robin­son ad­dress­ing the na­tion and ex­plain­ing his de­ci­sion to ap­point Patrick Man­ning as Prime Min­is­ter af­ter the Gen­er­al Elec­tion of 2001 end­ed in an 18-18 dead­lock with Bas­deo Pan­day.

George Maxwell Richards - Pres­i­dent from March 17, 2003 - March 18, 2013

“Per­haps we need to be more con­scious of the pro­vi­sions of our Con­sti­tu­tion. We should take the trou­ble to in­form our­selves of what is in fact a con­tract be­tween the peo­ple of this na­tion and our lead­ers. It is a con­tract that goes be­yond the tem­po­rary high points of elec­tion dra­ma that takes place, from time to time. It is a con­tract that po­si­tions our peo­ple to re­quire of our par­lia­men­tary and lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives, elect­ed as well as ap­point­ed, that the de­ci­sions tak­en in our Par­lia­ment, our lo­cal gov­ern­ment bod­ies, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and, the ex­e­cu­tion of those de­ci­sions by state en­ti­ties re­flect the ful­fil­ment of the promis­es that they make, when they choose to of­fer them­selves for pub­lic ser­vice.” – Richards at the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of the Third Ses­sion of the Tenth Par­lia­ment.

An­tho­ny Car­mona – Pres­i­dent from March 18, 2013 - March 19, 2018

“My fel­low cit­i­zens: It would be otiose, on the oc­ca­sion, to at­tempt to en­gage you in a dis­cus­sion on Con­sti­tu­tion­al Law. I do want to em­pha­sise, how­ev­er, that I am not an Ex­ec­u­tive Pres­i­dent. Un­der the West­min­ster form of gov­er­nance, there are pa­ra­me­ters with­in which I must op­er­ate. Pow­ers you think I have... I do not. Pow­ers you think I do not have... I do. I may not have a mag­ic wand, but the Of­fice of the Pres­i­den­cy is not im­po­tent.” – Car­mona in his in­au­gur­al ad­dress as Pres­i­dent in 2013 speak­ing about what the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent means in this coun­try.

Paula-Mae Weekes - March 19, 2018 - present

“It is a marathon folks! Whether we set off with a burst of speed or at a crawl there will come pe­ri­ods in which we fade and have to em­ploy the “just to the next lamp­post” strat­e­gy as we sol­dier on. But there will al­so be un­ex­pect­ed surges of en­er­gy when we are able to pro­pel our­selves for­ward with ex­tra­or­di­nary vigour. We must not be­come weary. We must trust that in time we will reap the ben­e­fits of our ef­forts.” –Weekes with words of op­ti­mism for a na­tion fac­ing chal­lenges of crime and so­ci­etal is­sues in her in­au­gur­al speech in 2018.