On November 23, through a TV broadcast, I heard Nizam Mohammed, a member of the Constitution Advisory Committee and former speaker, strongly objecting to the “recolonising” of the society by “the number of elitist, foreign, voluntary organisations across the country.”
We should no longer be copycats, he asserted.
More passionately, he advocated constitution reform with the prime objective of having “the people as sovereign and not the politicians.” That’s why, he said, the recent report by the Constitution Advisory Committee was titled We the People.” Mohammed added: “No one political party can do it.”
A major question is: How to have a government fully accountable to the people?
The founder of the separation of powers, Baron de Montesquieu, warned: “When the legislature and executive powers are unified in the same person or same body, there can be no liberty.”
So far, however, this collusion seems to suit both PNM and UNC. Both have been feverishly preoccupied with symptoms of a troubled state and its institutions, rather than examining the causes and the constitutional remedies required.
Montesquieu warned again:”The tyranny of a prince is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of citizens in a democracy.”
Mohammed was speaking at Cipriani Labour College at a People's Round Table panel on constitution reform.Other speakers included independent senator Sunity Maharaj and Movement for Social Justice leader David Abdulah. Mohammed’s fears of the country’s “recolonisation” or becoming “copycats” remind us of late Nobel Prize winner Sir Vidia Naipaul, who described us former colonials as “mimic men.” His 1967 novel The Mimic Men tells of the cultural dissonance formerly colonised people endure and the mimicking of their former colonisers’ habits for validation.
Interestingly, we appear quite comfortable mimicking foreign institutions. Few still strive, however, fighting “mimic men” and “copycat” syndrome. This few will tell you of the hardships and sacrifices faced along the way. The copycats resist change.
Being a copycat shows weakness in intellect and self-confidence. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines “copy” as “a thing made to imitate or be identical to another, rather than to produce something original.” And “copycat” is defined as “a person who copies another slavishly, the imitation of a person, act, event, etc.”
We appear so slavishly comfortable with the copied British political system that we appear reluctant to “produce something original” to suit our changed circumstances.
While being a useful starting point, the Constitutional Advisory Committee should have a chapter discussing democracy itself – its strengths, weaknesses and the extent to which elected politicians abuse their privileges. This now happens, for example, with our Parliament, where the executive sits comfortably with the legislature, thus reducing public accountability and sanctions to a minimum.
For the above reasons, I accepted the kind invitation last March of the Constitutional Advisory Committ
