PRESIDENT Christine Kangaloo on Monday lauded the diligence of MPs and senators amid some public disdain, but also urged them to collaborate to bring urgent solutions to the country’s rampant crime problem. Clad in all-white as if to portray truth, strength and purity, she offered several messages in her address to all parliamentarians at the ceremonial opening of Parliament at the Red House, Port of Spain.
She said she was amazed anyone ever agreed to become an MP or senator, amidst the burdens of such office.
Kangaloo said Parliament, like the President, was often misunderstood by the general public, even as both institutions could explain their role a bit more.
She claimed the public has been “fed a constant fare of negativity” about Parliament and been “almost programmed into a certain cynicism” on Parliament.
Kangaloo thanked outgoing, incoming and continuing parliamentarians for their service.
She touched on her own past as a senator, MP, minister and eventually Senate President to identify with the plight of MPs.
Just after her election as Pointe-a-Pierre MP in 2007, she was chided by a resident for not being seen since the election, she related incredulously.
She wondered if such cynicism was a simply an autonomic and unfair reaction to all pertaining to Parliament.
Saying TT has an “enormous amount” to be proud about its Parliament, she said, “In a society in which we are programmed to believe that ‘nothing works’, I can tell you that, as an institution, Parliament most certainly does.”
She attested that at commonwealth parliamentary conferences, the TT Parliament is often praised for its efficiency, while its clerks often visit other parliaments as subject-matter experts. On top of sittings on Tuesdays and Fridays, she said Parliament’s joint select committees (JSCs) provide invaluable oversight over government agencies, fostering accountability and public engagement. Several JSC recommendations have been enacted, she said, such as a fee structure for private banks.
Kangaloo said Parliament staff were always working and it was not by accident that Parliament was able to adapt to continue to sit during the pandemic. A lack of appreciation of all that Parliament does allows cynicism to fester, she said.
“Permit me to venture into potentially even less popular waters, and to say that there is also an enormous amount in terms of the sacrifices and the stresses that parliamentarians undergo, that our country can, and should, be grateful for.”
She said her words might seem unpalatable, even as some cynicism of parliamentarians has been earned, such as by breaches of the standing orders.
“Truthfully, sometimes we go too far and descend to depths of which we should be ashamed.
“But, equally truthfully, the work that parliamentarians – particularly elected parliamentarians – do, is fundamental to the well-being of our society, and that kind of work is, I fear, also under-appreciated.”
She recalled as MP once having to help a heavily pregnant woman with children who had just been evi
