Beckles: Lack of consultation shows Gov’t arrogance

Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of ar­ro­gance, claim­ing it is push­ing through ma­jor pieces of leg­is­la­tion with­out giv­ing the Op­po­si­tion and stake­hold­ers enough time for con­sul­ta­tion.

Speak­ing at a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing at the Mt Hope/Mt Lam­bert Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre on Thurs­day, Beck­les took par­tic­u­lar is­sue with the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of leg­is­la­tion deal­ing with al­co­hol, to­bac­co, cannabis and gam­bling, as well as the Pro­cure­ment Bill and Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill.

She said the Op­po­si­tion was giv­en less than 48 hours to pre­pare for the lat­est leg­is­la­tion, which she said was re­ceived on Mon­day night ahead of Wednes­day’s par­lia­men­tary sit­ting.

“Do you re­al­ly think they care about the peo­ple? Do you re­al­ly be­lieve they want the views of the Op­po­si­tion when they give you such short pe­ri­od of time to pre­pare?”

Beck­les con­trast­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s ap­proach with the pre­vi­ous PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion’s han­dling of cannabis and gam­bling leg­is­la­tion.

She re­called that the cannabis leg­is­la­tion was re­ferred to a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee and un­der­went an ex­tend­ed con­sul­ta­tion process be­fore be­ing passed.

“What that al­lowed for was the stake­hold­ers and every­body to come be­fore the Par­lia­ment, so when we passed the leg­is­la­tion you were ab­solute­ly cer­tain that you got the ben­e­fit of all stake­hold­ers.”

Beck­les ques­tioned the ur­gency sur­round­ing the cur­rent leg­is­la­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it re­lates to young peo­ple.

“If you are se­ri­ous about pass­ing a piece of leg­is­la­tion that im­pacts Trinidad and To­ba­go, then what is the rush? What is the rush?”

She said young peo­ple should be con­sult­ed on laws that di­rect­ly af­fect them, ar­gu­ing that they un­der­stand the chal­lenges fac­ing their gen­er­a­tion.

Beck­les al­so raised con­cerns about the prac­ti­cal im­pli­ca­tions of the pro­posed changes, in­clud­ing their im­pact on Car­ni­val and young peo­ple em­ployed in the en­ter­tain­ment, bar and casi­no in­dus­tries.

She ques­tioned how pro­posed age re­stric­tions and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion re­quire­ments would work in prac­tice, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing Car­ni­val.

“We are in Oc­to­ber, car­ni­val is ear­ly and be­cause car­ni­val is ear­ly, peo­ple al­ready for cos­tumes so what are they go­ing to do, and a lot of the peo­ple that play mas are young peo­ple. As we say, I don’t know who play­ing in Bliss, Yu­ma, Tribe and Vibez Mas…but think about it you stand up on Ari­api­ta and see about 20 trucks and you see the bar, where your ID? You find that mak­ing sense?”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said the Gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to con­sid­er such is­sues re­flect­ed what she de­scribed as an in­creas­ing­ly ar­ro­gant ap­proach to gov­er­nance.

Beck­les said the Gov­ern­ment’s stat­ed con­cern for young peo­ple must be matched by mean­ing­ful con­sul­ta­tion.

“When a gov­ern­ment reach­es the stage where they be­come ar­ro­gant, and you be­lieve you don’t need to lis­ten to the peo­ple, that is when I want to say to you: wake up and take note.”

Beck­les al­so crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the par­lia­men­tary process, ar­gu­ing that its ma­jor­i­ty in the House does not elim­i­nate the need for scruti­ny in the Sen­ate.

She point­ed to the nine In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors as part of what she de­scribed as the con­sti­tu­tion­al sys­tem of checks and bal­ances.

“The Sen­ate is a check and bal­ance.”

She fur­ther ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of as­sum­ing that the In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors would sup­port its leg­is­la­tion.