Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner has sharply criticized Prime Minister Patrick Manning for his regional integration plan. In a formal statement, the MP called it "an unprecedented stroke of political deflection.""Manning's ‘coalition of the willing' is but a mere attempt to divert public attention from bolting crime, runaway inflation and the crawling commission of enquiry into UDeCOTT," he said.
"His clandestine signing of the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) which no one has had the benefit of seeing, except those who hastily agreed to do so, begs of surreptitious and covert motives," he said.
"His inconsistent and paradoxical approach towards consensus and national approval and his flippant dismissal that political integration shall not be subject to a referendum is typical of one who is on a ferocious quest for executive control."
On August 14, Manning and the Prime Ministers of St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Grenada signed the MOU to establish economic union by 2011 and political union two years later.
Manning has said Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts are also expected to sign the MOU, which he said is aimed at strengthening the integration process.
But Warner is concerned that Manning believes something as fundamental as this would merely require a simple majority for passage in the House of Representatives.
"The attempt to utilize perceived loopholes in the Constitution is one that is flawed and unsound in law and one that the Parliamentary Opposition will fully expose at the appropriate debate," Warner promised.
"...clearly any attempt at political union poses constitutional questions for...the future independence, role and responsibility for the office of the President, the service commissions, the composition of Parliament, powers to investigate outside the jurisdiction by the DPP and Ombudsman and appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy council," Warner pointed out.
He said Manning's political integration is "clearly a case of ambition surpassing the rule of law and constitutional imperatives."
The Chaguanas West MP said Manning's "flip-flop approach and his public relations approach to consultation" are discourteous to the people of the country and a "politically discourteous act to the integrity of our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean and the historical motives of CARICOM."
Warner said on the eve of the 46th anniversary of the country's independence Manning is making a "mockery of our sovereignty", which he said the PNM government treats with contempt.
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