Advice to the Prime Minister... (On the Warner Issue)

How is it that a sporting organization like FIFA understands the value of a suspension until names are cleared to protect the innocent and protect everyone else from the guilty, yet we who have a Parliamentary Code of Ethics to protect the people, the Government and the country's highest institutions from this very humiliation are stalling to act?

Is the Prime Minister or her Office compromised where Jack Warner is concerned and is she constrained to act in a manner beyond where common sense and decency directs? 

The message of such a display is not lost on the citizenry and in fact encourages wrong doing and wrong doers alike. Patronage must never trump integrity and morality in public affairs, and Kamla Persad Bissessar, based on her years of national service and her own pronouncements in many similar matters really ought to know better. Her actions here may well be a test of her mettle, and she should demonstrate that knowledge in quick time so as not to stain her legacy and her government by fallout from questionable displays of loyalty.

The fact of the matter is we cannot step into the breach for Mr. Warner in this regard, not when the parent body to which the imbroglio is concerned has already definitively acted. To do so would be to bring into question what we stand for as a people and a nation and in all realms of reality, to appear more corrupt or corruptible than FIFA; this can not be a good thing for this country, such is their less than stellar reputation and we really must be guided by the bigger picture as well as the concomitant effects of all actions where our support is concerned.

With that in mind and like many others before me I am calling on the Prime Minister to take steps to distance herself from this matter and to allow good sense and justice to  prevail in the best interest of both the accused and the people of Trinidad & Tobago.

To do otherwise now would be to devalue every other ruling that she has ever made on similar matters, to set this nation further down the road to Banana Republic status and make it a laughing stock for the rest of the civilized world.

R v Sussex Justices, Ex parte McCarthy ([1924] is a leading English case on the impartiality and recusal of judges. It is famous for its precedence in establishing the principle that the mere appearance of bias is sufficient to overturn a judicial decision. It also brought into common parlance the oft-quoted aphorism that "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done." 

In this matter Madame Prime Minister you will be remembered for your position and you will be represented and quoted by your actions where this is concerned for a long time to come.

Might I suggest that if you must err no matter what, that you err on both the side of reason and of caution?

We the people of Trinidad & Tobago wait for your demonstration and your decision, and trust that as in all important things, good sense shall prevail.