Tuesday, August 11 2009

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning, at a political meeting in Pt Fortin last night, said the time has come for a review of the role and functions of the President, as he made a new pitch for an executive president as outlined in the working document on constitutional reform.

Manning said that under the 1976 Constitution, the President has the power and responsibility to appoint a Chief Justice, a chairman of the Public Service Commission, head of the Teaching Service Commission and the Auditor General.

“The question arises, should a president who does not derive his power by popular vote from the people should exercise the power that the president now has. The time has come for us to review this,” Manning said.

And while the issue of an executive president has been roundly criticised as giving too much power to one man, he said such a president will still be selected by the people and that the real power would still lie in the Cabinet. He also maintained his stance that notwithstanding legal challenges and protests, an aluminium smelter will be constructed in this country.

Speaking before a large crowd of supporters, Manning declared: “Point Fortin has now emerged as the leader of LNG exports in the Western Hemisphere and when the system of local government reform is put in place and we form the new borough of Pt Fortin and La Brea, you will be home to the first aluminium smelter in Trinidad and Tobago.

“There are those who will tell you, not that they are opposed to the smelter, but that they are opposed to industrialisation, that as you industrialise, they say, there will be damage to the environment. We say that is not so!

“The PNM says that is not true...there are international standards established to determine emissions that are acceptable from industrial plants. The PNM says sustainable development is what we are all about,” Manning said.

Earlier in the meeting, the gathering burst into a spontaneous singing of ‘Happy Birthday to you’ after the Prime Minister announced that today (August 11), “is a birthday of a very special person...the birthday of a lady you well know”, as he referred to his wife Hazel Manning, the Local Government Minister.

“She will achieve a very interesting age tomorrow...ask her she will tell you. I will like to be the first to wish her a happy birthday and to express the wish that she sees many more years of life.”

As the crowd sang ‘Happy Birthday’, Manning joked: “It is clear that some of you came for a birthday party.”

He later knocked the other political parties saying that while he does not operate on polls, he saw the need to point out that a poll conducted recently, the results of which were published in the media, showed the PNM enjoying popular support among society.

He then invited persons in society who had no political affiliation, to join the PNM. “The poll also says there are a lot of people who left these parties and who are in political limbo. I say to these people, the doors of the PNM are open. We welcome each and everyone of you who share the aims and objectives of the PNM. All ye who are heavy laden, come to the PNM, and we will give you political rest’.” The crowd of supporters applauded.