PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley says a national consultation on constitutional reform will be held in October this year dismissing in the process, opposition suggestion of an early general election in Trinidad and Tobago.
Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley (second from right) at the head table during the special convention of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) on Sunday.Addressing a special convention of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) on Sunday night, Rowley also announced plans to remove the three ships of Christopher Columbus from Trinidad and Tobago’s coat of arms and replace them with the national instrument, the steelpan.
He told the convention that the change is expected to be finalised before Republic Day on September 24, with a six-month transition period to facilitate changes to stationery and other official materials.
“I want to appeal to my parliamentary colleagues and all those who are political aspirations. There are times when they’ve got to come together and now is one of those times,” Rowley said in an apparent reference to Opposition Leader Kamala Persad Bissessar’s statement that constitutional reform is a political gimmick by the ruling party.
“The entire constitutional reform is another election gimmick. This is the same tired PNM gimmickry that was used before, as seen in the local government reform charade in 2023 and the roadmap to recovery propaganda before general election 2020, where they duped gullible pseudo-intellectuals and some business persons,” Persad-Bissessar told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper over the last weekend.
“This reform report is just a con job to be used as the PNM manifesto for the upcoming general election. Ninety-nine per cent of the population saw it as a propaganda ploy and it was very poorly attended, not even PNM supporters took it seriously or attended. The committee comprised persons unqualified for the task and they were met with mostly empty rooms throughout the country in their consultations,” she added.
But Rowley said that the national conference on the constitutional reform will most likely take place in the first week of October adding “that guarantees you that the election that they’re talking about in November not taking place.
“And to say that we are doing it because it’s an election time, I told you early on, the work that I did to get to this point took place in 2023 and January 2024 the committee was appointed. January 2024 is the middle of the term of 2025 because, remember, we lost 2021 into 2022 with COVID.
“We were recovering from COVID (and)….this is one issue that we didn’t leave behind. And therefore it is nonsense to say that this has anything to do with some political election. That is during November, there will be no election in November.
“There will be election in 2025 but in the meantime, this exercise is so important that we should just follow it step by step, and as the song says prayer, it will lead us to a place. It will lead us to a place if we abandon the exercise for whatever reason, because we get weary or because it’s undermined politically, we will not get there.
“But if we stay with the exercise, those irritants, those fundamental obstacles, we as a people, …as a nation should be able to come up with a package of reform that we have some general agreement on, because we are not going to get agreement on everything, and not everybody going to agree with any one thing.”
Rowley told the convention that he is aiming for consensus, acknowledging that what “you really going to get is probably widespread support or significant opposition, and that is where leadership comes in.
“What do we go forward with as leaders of this country? We have a PNM. We are sufficiently important that we ought not to be ignored, but we are sufficiently responsible as not to ignore anybody. We are sufficiently experienced as not to be disrespected, and we will not disrespect anyone.
“We welcome the rest of the nation in this exercise, and if the PNM has to lead it, it is because we are the government. There are some things the government has to do, and because we have been in government in this country, from 56 to 86 from 91 to 95 from 2002 to 2010 and from 2015, to wherever,” he added.
“We are responsible for this exercise, and it’s an exercise where we are aiming to bring about change, and what we genuinely want is not exchange. We want fundamental, useful, beneficial change, and the consultative process has and will continue to play its role,” he said.
He said that the situation regarding Tobago’s call for greater autonomy has also been held up by opposition antics .
“The issue of Tobago in the Constitution has been with us for quite some time, since 1970 and a number of adjustments have been made. A number of positions have been taken. We ended up with a Tobago Assermbly 10 years later, 1980 and then we amended it again later and now, subsequent to that second amendment, there was widespread consultation in Tobago. “
Rowley said that the bill before Parliament on Tobago followed widespread consultation on the sister island and was brought to the legislative chambers by his administration “ without amending” a thing.
He said arising out of the Tobago situation, a Joint Select Committee of Parliament was established and put to work on the Tobago issue, because at that time the amendment to the Constitution on that situation was about only Tobago.
“What we have done here today is to broaden that exercise for the whole country, Trinidad and Tobago. That’s what it is. The joint select committee reported with some very far reaching improvements towards granting Tobago greater autonomy over the business, the resources and the vision and the future of Tobago.
“That’s in the outcome of the joint select committee report. So far, only the PNM supports that initiative,…It does not have the support of the UNC (United National Congress) , but we always believe that somewhere, sometime come along and come to a consensus..
Rowley said the government has kept the Tobago issue alive in the Parliament and “ I have seen nothing better and nothing to replace it, so I’m going to put it to the floor in the parliament for a vote, and when it goes to the Parliament, it will be the first arm of this constitutional reform exercise that will be tested by the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
“It doesn’t have to be a perfect bill. There’s no such thing as a perfect bill. We’ve passed many laws in the Parliament, and within three to six months, we’ve come back to the parliament to tweak it and to amend it, for good reason.
“So the Tobago select committee report that gives Tobago a lot, much more than anyone to give you when you put it there, the votes of the PNM are guaranteed it is support. The others in the Parliament will be invited to support it, and abstention will not be a way out, because to not cast a vote for it, to abstain is to vote against it, because it requires their support.
“And as for politicians in Tobago, when we put it on the floor in the Parliament, then you will see who your friends are and who are the ones who don’t want Tobago to get any aspect of improvement on the current laws teaching directly, as simple as that, it will not die and lapse in the Parliament,” Rowley said, adding “if it dies in the Parliament, it would be because I’ve been voted down.
“So ….the vote will take place on the Tobago joint committee report,” he said.
Rowley said that the three Columbus boats in the Trinidad and Tobago emblem will be replaced “and since we have enough votes in the Parliament to do it, I can announce now that as soon as the legislature adjustment is made, and that amendment, that adjustment should be made before the 24th of September, we then, over a six month period, we replace Columbus three ships, the Santa Maria, The Pinta and the Nina, with the steel band”.
He said replacing the ships on the emblem should signal that “we are on our way to removing the colonial vestiges that we have in our Constitution.
“And I hope that we start with that, and we end up getting up and no longer being squatters on the steps of the Privy Council, because all those who believe, all those who believe that the Privy Council must always be our Supreme Court, one of these days in England, there’s going to be a government that will take the position to expel us, and then we leave.
“If we have our tails, we put it between our legs and agree. We should have done that since 2025 ladies and gentlemen, this is an exciting exercise, and it will do us well to see through,” Rowley said, after earlier telling the convention the PNM’s position on the CCJ, which was established in 2001 as the region’s highest and final court is well known.
“Everybody knows that the PNMs position on the CCJ is that we prefer to complete our independence. And like the President of India told us here in Trinidad and Tobago, when they adjust the Parliament, the Supreme Court of India is supreme in India.
“We want the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago to be supreme and what is it that we have other CARICOM colleagues who are comfortable in their situation where CCJ is their court”.
Rowley said it is ironic that the headquarters of the CCJ is based in Trinidad and Tobago and the country not a fill member.
“Political decisions derail that, and we have the embarrassment of the court being located here, but we’re not having it as our final court of appeal. I really would like to say today it would be a great satisfaction to me if the Opposition Leader will change her position and allow her people, if not her if, since she’s not interested… allow her people to take part in these proceedings so that the national interest can be served,” Rowley said, making reference also to changes to the policies regarding the establishment of service commissions.
