PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – High on the list of coming attractions with potential to fulfill or disappoint hopes for a bright and prosperous new year is constitution reform. Late last year, Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar, who is also leader of the Congress of the People, described the process of “constitution reform (as) allowing citizens to participate in the way we govern ourselves”.
He pledged to deliver on this assignment by May. And this is not a moment too soon for a Trinidad and Tobago more and more urgently engrossed by assorted doubts and disquiets about the prevailing constitutional arrangements.
Among seminal concerns is the constitutional relationship between Tobago and Trinidad, expressed as the realisation or expansion of internal self-government. Parallel with the raging Tobago House of Assembly election campaign, at least the start of a parliamentary debate on reform of the relationship should ensure top billing for concerns about how T&T governs itself as a two-island republic.
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