Stealing Power.... (From a Jack to a King)

According to section 76 of the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago - "76. (1) Where there is occasion for the appointment of a Prime Minister, the President shall appoint as Prime Minister-
(a) a member of the House of Representatives who is the Leader in that House of the party which commands the support of the majority of members of that House; or
(b) where it appears to him that that party does not have an undisputed leader in that House or that no party commands the support of such a majority, the member of the House of Representatives who, in his judgment, is most likely to command the support of the majority of members of that House;
and who is willing to accept the office of Prime Minister. "

At any given time I am able to share less than ten percent of the information sent to me if it cannot be verified or if it built on hearsay or supposition, or if it is potentially libelous, slanderous or otherwise contravenes the laws of the Republic. In this case this information that I was given is of such a potentially volatile nature if true I thought it best to put it into the public domain so that the people could be informed and able to register their opinion(s) on this possible development well in advance. This is a summary of a conversation, and as much as is humanly possible I will try to sell it exactly as it was sold to me. I believe the source to be reliable as his information has been unimpeachable up until now.

Guy - “It is alleged and surmised that an arrangement has been made at within the United National Congress/People's Partnership to have Jack Warner appointed Prime Minister through the support of the majority of the members of the House of Representatives on the government side as is catered for in the above mentioned clause of the Constitution. This most likely would be His Excellency's last duty as President, and while normally a development like this would trigger the announcement of a general election if the sitting Prime Minister refused to yield,  in this case the deal that is being concocted sees the new Prime Minister Warner appointing his predecessor Kamla Persad Bissessar as the new President of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago in exchange.

Now, if this is indeed the case the people of this country could end up with a Prime Minister negotiated into Office as opposed to being elected, creating a disturbing precedent where the transfer of power is concerned. To make the matter worse and to confound it even further, we could then end up with a sitting President (Kamla) beholding to political investors facing charges before the local courts (Ish, Steve, Brian et al), to whom requests for pardons on their collective behalf could be made, deliberately undermining the Office of the President.

It has also been inferred that the increased crime and murder rate is being allowed to run away unchecked to extremes so as to create an environment for the declaration of another more onerous state of emergency ostensibly to quell crime, but also to prevent any public demonstration against this development. A leading advertising and PR firm has been engaged to create a campaign to 'sell' the idea to the public.”

Me – If these macabre machinations were to ever come to light democracy in this country would inevitably come to an end. That there are those willing to confound the will of the electorate through back channels and creative means demonstrates to my mind that there would be no limits to what they would be willing to do to consolidate power or to hold on to it for that matter. It is my earnest belief that we as a people have a responsibility to the defense of our democracy and are obligated to ensure that they never see the light of day. As Martin Luther King Jr. Said - “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” If this is in anyway true it would seem that out of fear of the possibility of one leader with dictatorial tendencies we may have jumped out of the frying pan clean into the fire.