PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Independent legislator, Senior Counsel Sophia Chote, Friday described as “draconian” the failed Law Reform (Zones of Special Operations) (ZOSO) Bill in the Senate earlier this week, denying making any approach to a senior government legislator for personal favours in exchange for supporting the measure.
“Independent senators have spoken about it, I don’t think I am telling tales out of school because it was a sort of general attack on independents,” she said, adding how surprised she is that people without any facts believe such an approach was made.
Chote also brushed aside a statement by the President of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), Senior Counsel Israel Khan, that it was now incumbent on President Christine Kangaloo to summon the nine independent legislators to determine whether any such approach was made and whether the allegation has any factual basis.
Khan said such an accusation, now placed in the public domain, casts a cloud over the entire independent bench, as the public has not been told which two senators were allegedly involved.
“It also casts serious criminal behaviour on the other seven President’s senators, since the people of the republic remain unaware as to who were the two senators allegedly seeking this bribe,” Khan said, adding that the matter must be reported to the police for a full criminal investigation as well as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Roger Gaspard, moving immediately to request that the Commissioner of Police, Allister Guevarro, initiate an investigation into the claims.
“I am not in a position to suggest to the President what she may determine to do, but what I can say is if independent senators have to be summoned to be asked about anything, what exactly are they going to be asked about?” Chote said on a radio programme here on Friday.
“We don’t know who is making the allegation, or when the allegation was made. We don’t know what the actual allegation is; we don’t know whether the allegation involving two people is a single incident or separate incidents. So exactly what will an independent senator be asked if summoned to the President?” Chote told radio listeners.
She said she is trying to “wrap my mind around that as an attorney at law, but perhaps Mr.Khan has already wrapped his mind around it and may have some answers”.
In a social media post hours after the ZOSO legislation was defeated in the Senate, on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar wrote that “during the debate, two of the President’s Senators approached a senior Government Senator seeking personal favours in exchange for support and for securing the remaining votes needed for passage. Those requests were rejected. From that moment, it was clear the Bill would not pass. They know who they are. They must live with that shame.
“My Government will not buy votes… This is why I warn about the fake ‘eat-a-food’ elite. They do not care about decent, hardworking citizens, only self-interest and privilege,” said Persad-Bissessar, who, before the debate in the Senate, had described the independent legislators as ‘bootlickers and brown-nosers.’
“These shameless presidents’ senators had no courage to contest any election to sit in that Parliament; they are not there because of the will of the people. The entire country knows that these people were appointed because they are bootlickers and brown-nosers,” she said, adding that they had been appointed by President Kangaloo, who she described as a “low-level PNM (opposition People’s National Movement) functionary.
Chote, during her radio interview, said “people” have been trying to make the situation in the Senate “sound as though the exercise” last Tuesday was different from any other sitting of the Upper House.
She spoke of how the independent bench operates when dealing with any piece of legislation, taking into consideration the measures outlined in the Trinidad and Tobago constitution and whether the government is open to taking on board any amendments.
“When we make law, we make law not only for one official. This is a law that will be in place until repealed for any prime minister present and to come, and I thought that was something we had to take into account. In my mind, I place great weight on the fact that this was a particular piece of draconian legislation.
“Powers were being given to a prime minister, and I am not talking about the current office holder. I am talking about not only the current office holder, but future prime ministers and what powers were being given to them via this piece of legislation, and all of those things weighed in my mind,” Chote said.
“I think there were some mixed messages on the part of the government with respect to flexibility,” she said, noting that it had seemed at first that the government was willing to take suggestions on board, “but by the time it came down to the vote, I think the door was shut on that”.
Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles has accused Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar of peddling lies and seeking to make headlines.
“The people of Trinidad and Tobago deserve leadership, not spin, excuses, threats, and theatrics,” said Beckles, an attorney, who also called on the prime minister to name the independent senators, reiterating that the ZOSO Bill was unconstitutional and facilitated a militarised state.
Former independent senator and Senior Counsel Martin Daly said that the claims made by the prime minister, without evidence, undermine constitutional governance and public standards.
Speaking on a television programme, Daly described Persad-Bissessar’s statements as vague and improper.
“I think we should start by setting aside these unparticularised allegations. She can make them with particulars…in Parliament where she has absolute privilege,” he said, adding that her allegations appeared to be driven by frustration over the independents constitutional role in checking executive power.
“It just seems to be the latest expression of pique that the Independent senators have the power to check and balance executive power under the Constitution,” he said, noting that winning an election did not amount to an unrestricted grant of authority.
The Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago had also raised concerns about the legislation that the government said had been modeled on the Jamaican Bill.
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