PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The 62-year-old former President of the Senate, Christine Carla Kangaroo, was sworn into office Monday as the seventh President of Trinidad and Tobago, promising to demystify the office as well as encourage intellectual, cultural, and artistic debates in the oil prosperous twin island republic.
While Kangaroo, the second consecutive woman to be elected to the largely ceremonial post, also promised to be engaged in “relentless advocacy” to achieve her aims, she also noted that it would be done diplomatically without anger or bitterness” and that much emphasis will be placed on the development of the youth.
Kangaroo took the oath of office before Chief Justice Ivor Archie at a ceremony held at the Queen’s Park Savanah on the capital’s outskirts and witnessed by her husband, her 95-year-old mother, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, and more than 500 guests.
Kangaroo, who replaces Paula Mae-Weekes, who did not seek a further five-year term, said she is also aware of the “disquiet” that surrounded her election to the position having been nominated by the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) of which she had been a member some years ago.
The attorney, who is the only person to have served as both Senate president and vice president and the third woman to serve as Acting President of the country while being Senate President, said nonetheless she was reaching out to all of Trinidad and Tobago to make her tenure as successful as it could be.
She said if, for one reason or another, some people “might not be fully on board with assisting me in achieving these goals, I know there have been voices from certain quarters that have given the impression that such collaboration might not be readily forthcoming as one might have hoped.
“To every such voice I repeat (Trinidad calypso singer) Merchant’s invitation in song…to let us forget spite and grudges and concentrate and to come and sit and let us try to relate.
“I assure all who have not yet signed on to the idea of my presidency that in the words of Melanie Hudson (another Trinidadian singer) …I will always be there for you, no matter what you do, whatever joy or pain that you are going through.
“What all of us must realize…is whatever grief and sadness we bring into each other’s households, in the end, we are all and still this country’s daughters and sons.”
Kangloo’s nomination had been opposed by the main opposition United National Congress (UNC), which named prominent criminal attorney Israel Khan as its candidate. However, he was soundly defeated during the secret balloting by the Electoral College that comprised legislators from both houses of Parliament.
In her address, President Kanga loo said she was also mindful that a significant portion of the citizenry still needs to be made clear as to the precise role of the head of state.
“During my term, I want to continue the work my predecessors began trying to demystify the role. I think a good place to start is at the level of our primary school children,” she said, adding, “I believe that heightening awareness at the primary school level about the role of the President will help promote a better understanding of the presidency.
“This is one of the things I hope that the presidential future that we are starting to write about today will look like. A future in which there is a population that is better informed about the presidency that therefore is better able to hold it to account”.
She said while she is aware of specific security systems and protocols that attend to the Office of the President, they should not be inflexible.
“We must be careful not to make the mistake of elevating these arrangements into ends in themselves, and we must avoid at all costs conscripting them into the dubious service of making the highest office in the land also the most remote office in the land,” the new head of state said, adding that her intention is also to develop an archive system that would preserve the presidential history of Trinidad and Tobago.
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