THIS WHY WE DO NOT TRUST OUR PRESENT GOVERNMENT.. DAILY EXPRESS AUGUST 28, 2 K 14 It’s all lies Merle Hodge denies ‘21’ consultations with Govt: By Michelle Loubon Story Created: Aug 27, 2014 at 10:50 PM ECT Story Updated: Aug 27, 2014 at 10:50 PM ECT PORT OF SPAIN “You hear lie, that is lie. There were never 21 consultations. It is lies, deception and deviousness.” Constitution Reform Committee member (CRC) Merle Hodge said contrary to the information laid in Parliament during the Senate debate on Tuesday, the Peoples’ Partnership never engaged in 21 consultations on the Constitution (Amendement) 2014 Bill. She also said there was a tremendous amount of work to be done in achieving ultimate democracy since members of Parliament (MPs) had to engage in intense consultation with the respective communities they represent before voting in the nation’s Parliament. Hodge and other activists have been holding vigil outside the Parliament building, International Waterfront Centre, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain in protest of the run-off provision in the bill which she said had not been included in the proposed legislation when public consultations were held. Via a telephone interview yesterday, Hodge said: “They just keep saying they had so many commissions. It was a pack of lies that there were 21 consultations. Those consultations were not consultations that were meant to evaluate any bill. They were mendacious. It was billed as brainstorming. The participants responded to questions like, ‘What would you like to see in the Constitution?’ There was no consultation on this bill. They (MPs and senators) can’t say we (the public) were consulted widely on run-off. People came there and put in their thoughts. It was “one way” of getting peoples’ thoughts. Another method was to put something together and the other kind is to gather peoples’ thoughts on it.” She said she and fellow commissioner Carlos Dillon who has also spoken out against the run-off provision were not present at some of the consultations to which reference were made. “The run-off did not come up in previous meetings,” she said. Asked to share her thoughts on the clash Tuesday between the riot police and protesters, she said: “It is a ruse. Every now and then they sent the police out to disrupt the proceedings. They are bent on making us uncomfortable. It has them uneasy. They want to find every way to get rid of us. “We have no way of communicating with the members of Parliament. We put them in there. And it was ironic, we have no way of communicating with them. We were never violent. We had no intentions of being violent.” Hodge said the conscience vote of the MPs was an indication that it was important to fix the democratic structures whereby MPs vote. She said, “It is not a nice reflection of democracy when MPs can just vote based on their conscience. We need to fix democratic structures. The MPs should go into the communities and consult the people. They just can’t go in there and vote based on conscience. We have a lot to plan on how we will direct the mechanism for voting by MPs. “They just can’t vote “yes” or “no” on something that is already in our minds and something we are against. We have stalled. It is a retarded step. We don’t have democracy. We have not completed the process. “The PP is saying they are just broadening democracy but we have to question the process by which this run-off provision has been put together.” Asked to share her sentiments on Independent Senator Rolph Balgobin’s statement of “You need one, you may have one” with respect to the Senate vote, she said: “It is seen as a foregone conclusion. A lot of people who were taking days off to protest did not come out after that.”
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:33:03 +0000
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