Charles: Beware a PNM Dictatorship
Trinidad and Tobago is under siege and if we are not vigilant in protecting our rights and freedoms we face a creeping PNM dictatorship.
Last September, we witnessed a National Security Minister being sworn in first, followed by the AG and then the Prime Minister. The faux pas was quickly corrected but in retrospect, we can see this as foreshadowing.
Today we see a Government aggressively ignoring legitimate concerns of citizens, doing as it pleases as it incrementally gives greater power to itself at the same time failing to provide well paying jobs, reduce crime or meaningfully diversify our economy.
The Keith Rowley administration is unique in the militarization of the government. His Cabinet includes Major General Edmund Dillon and Brigadier General Ancil Antoine; retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Glenda Jennings Smith is the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry from National Security.
In the wake of the passage of the SSA presumably headed by another military officer and the rumors that a senior military officer will be our Ambassador to the US, Trinidad and Tobago would do well to pay careful attention and be on guard.
Before the Rowley administration laid the SSA Amendments in parliament, the Attorney General put a mechanism in place to give the Minister of National Security the authority to initiate the appointment of a Police Commissioner, limiting the constitutionally independent Police Services Commission.
Now that the SSA Amendments have Presidential assent we should heed President Carmona’s statement that he expects that “the operation of the Strategic Services Agency (Amendment) Act No. 4 of 2016, will be engaged meaningfully and justly, with regard and respect for the rule of law, due process and the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago”.
A society such as ours thrives on a system of checks and balances that protects the rights and freedoms of citizens while giving the Government sufficient power to achieve its mandate. When that power shifts in either direction we face anarchy or dictatorship. Are we witnessing a creeping PNM dictatorship?
A Government that respects the Rule of Law would welcome more stringent oversight. Such mechanisms are the real difference between intelligence agencies in the US and the United Kingdom, on the one hand, and those that exist in Russia, Uganda or Zimbabwe on the other. Our Government has chosen to lean ominously towards the latter model.
Today the PNM Government takes extra powers unto itself at will; they scorn and disregard our concerns; they ignore calls for consultation; when we carry out our constitutionally mandated functions we are deemed obstructionists; they flaunt that they are in charge and we must deal with it. Today we face the imminent danger of a constitutionally elected dictatorship in which an Attorney General has stated that we have no enshrined right to privacy. We ignore the signs of a creeping dictatorship at our peril.
That’s why every citizen has a patriotic duty in the fight for freedom and the preservation of our rights guaranteed under the Constitution. We in the UNC are working on your behalf by challenging this legislation all the way to the Privy Council.
Rodney Charles
MP for Naparima