Sir Ellis Clarke has disowned the constitutional reform proposals outlined on Sunday by Prime Minister Patrick Manning in an address to the national convention of his People's National Movement (PNM).The country's first president is the main architect of the existing 1976 Republican constitution and the author of a draft revised constitution presented last year to Manning.
That document proposed an executive president, but the reformed Manning outlined on Sunday have no such office.
Manning said the president under the reforms would preside over cabinet and would have authority to appoint ministers, but would lack executive power like that of the U.S. president. Instead, the president and the cabinet would act collectively and answer to Parliament.
But Sir Ellis told the Newsday newspaper: "I disown it completely." He says it’s not his.
"I don’t know whose draft it is, it certainly is not mine and I don’t think anybody on the round table will claim it. It’s nobody’s baby," Sir Ellis said. "If it is nobody’s draft then let’s wait and see," he told the paper.
Manning said the ideas came from a round table of academics and politicians but he didn't name members of the group. There are reports that some members, including some in the PNM caucus, were taken by surprise.
The details the prime minister announced appear to severely diminish the independence major institutions such as Parliament, the Judiciary, the director of Public Prosecutions and Permanent Secretaries.
Sir Ellis said it's too early to form an opinion on most of them since the prime minister has not made the details of the proposals public.
On the proposal for reforming the financing of the Judiciary, he said, "It depends on what sort of financing.... I don’t know which is better: for a ministry to be erecting court houses or for a Chief Justice to be going around looking at buildings?"
Former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma called the reforms "frightening." He said the proposals warrant immediate cause for concern in the Judiciary. "It seeks to undermine the Judiciary and to make the administration subservient to the executive," Sharma said.
And Senior Counsel Martin Day also spoke of the need for a fully independent Judiciary. "The independence of the Judiciary goes far beyond preserving the independence of the individual judge. The Judiciary is entitled to institutional independence. The proposal to control court administration is a poisonous one and I expect the so-called round table to advise accordingly," Daly told the Trinidad Express.
"For example, we cannot have the Executive carrying out the function of rostering and assigning of judges to try cases," he added.
However he noted that he was expressing his personal views not those of the Law Association, which he heads.
So far two members have been identified - Dr Selwyn Ryan and Dr John Spence.
Commenting on the proposals, Ryan said said he was "shocked" that there would be no executive president under the new constitutional arrangement.
He agreed that it was not Manning's proposals. "I thought he was fair in disavowing ownership of a document. I don't think that he was out of line in saying that the document is a discussion document, that it is not cast in stone, that it is not the Government's position, or his position, or the position of the round table, and that it is open to be torn up," Ryan told the Express.
He told the paper the document to be laid in parliament would not have the unanimous endorsement of anybody "because there are people with strong views on many, many things... I certainly disagree with a lot of stuff".
He said people have registered agreement with and objections to some of the proposals. "It has been an open, almost seminar-type of discussion, a seminar of governance. The Prime Minister has his preferences but he has not pushed anything down anybody's throat."
Dr Spence said he wants to wait until the document is laid in Parliament before making any comment on the proposals.
Read the Express Editorial: A Diversion from Mr Manning
Read the Guardian Editorial: Take constitution reform to the people
Read the Newsday Editorial: Wrong Focus
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