(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Patrick Manning says he has no desire to become the nation’s executive president as proposed in the working document for the latest draft constitution prepared by a round table of scholars operating out of his Office.
“Those opposed to us are saying that Manning wants to institute and executive arrangement because he wants to be executive president. That holds nothing for me,” Manning said.
The two previous draft constitutions prepared by former president Sir Ellis Clarke and the Principles of Fairness group, respectively, which have been laid in the Parliament also proposed other versions of an executive presidency.
Yet, the proposal contained in the working document, however, has caused heightened speculation and concerns across the country that Manning wants to be an executive president so as to have complete control over the Executive, the Parliament, the Judiciary, the military and all other aspects of governance.
Adding to the controversy is the fact that Manning is being driven in an official car that bears the Coat of Arms which has been the traditional number plate of the President’s fleet of vehicles but the Government has maintained there is nothing illegal or improper about this.
“When we make proposals like these, we do not make them to serve ourselves. We make those proposals because we feel that at the end of the day it will lead to a better structure of governance,” Manning told a group of People’s National Movement (PNM) supporters during the party’s 10th political education meeting at the Esplanade in Scarborough on Friday night.
Saying that he has spent the last 38 years in public life and has been Prime Minister for “a long time”, Manning declared: “It (executive presidency) holds no attractions to me. My concern is not that. My concern is not personal aggrandizement. I have said it before that politics must not be the pursuit of fame and power and fortune. Politics, my dear friends, if it must have any meaning to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, must have a social dimension. A dimension of selfless service, that is what it is all about.”
As the small crowd of PNM supporters cheered, and one very enthusiastic Manning fan shouted his agreement with the Prime Minister’s explanation of what public life should be all about, Manning said when his administration is simply trying to find the best governance structure “all for the honour and the glory of Almighty God and for the people of Tobago and Trinidad and Tobago.”
“Praise God for Jesus,” the enthusiastic Manning supporter shouted.
Making reference to the Pentecostal faith to which Manning said he belongs, Manning looked in the supporter’s direction and said, “We have a penny section here tonight eh.”
He returned to his serious tone, however, as he voiced his concerns that the executive president as proposed in the working document “will not allow everyone” to vote for that person they want to serve in that office.
