In this spirit, I hope business leaders will get more involved in public policy issues. I think it is time for more of T&T’s business leaders to step up to the plate and make their voices heard in areas that have a direct impact on the future of this country, particularly the longer term issues that we face as a country, not just the issues you believe are important for your business or for your particular sector.
Governments at every level cannot undertake such discussions alone; and they cannot identify problems and propose solutions in a vacuum. The creation of good public policy needs business leaders’ perspectives and insights as well as those from other segments of society, as part of engaged and fully-informed public dialogue.
In our quest to repair T&T, we must decry this growing philosophy of mediocrity. Mediocrity of any form is unacceptable. Unfortunately, mediocrity seems to be the order of the day and in all spheres it seems that mediocrity is being accepted more and more as the norm.
Quality service, value for money spent, treating customers fairly, respecting and honouring diversity, productivity and tolerance—they are all under siege. The solution to this mediocrity begins with the transformation of the man and woman in the mirror.
Distinguished members, education is the key to sustainability because if any country wants to secure its place in a competitive global world, it has to develop its human capital.
An open and meritocratic education system is fundamental to establishing the standards of society—promoting and rewarding individual effort and commitment. It is the key to unleashing creativity, for which this country is famous, and the key to accessing the full potential of our people.
A strong system of higher education provides a community with leaders, building a sustainable research capacity in our education system.
Our business sector is also expected to contribute and support the education goals of the Government, specifically as it relates to high quality research in science and technology. Such a contribution is essential to the sustainable economic growth of any country.
We each must do our part in creating a culture of learning and motivational ambition among our people and it begins with the very young. As an initiative in this direction, I have monthly “Lunch with the President” meetings with young primary school students between the ages of 5 to 12.
I also made a promise as Head of State to visit every single school in T&T and I have since visited some 28 primary schools going from classroom to classroom, refusing to do school assemblies—the easy way out—to spread the message of hope, ambition and infinite possibilities in the lives of our schoolchildren, building self-esteem and a belief in themselves in terms of what is possible and probable in their lives.
Lower the age for senators
As adults, we like to tell our young people what is required of them but we are not prepared to accept what they require of us. A youth Parliament with powers of intervention must be part of any rejuvenated Constitution.
Until such time I will attempt to do what needs to be done. I have appointed three persons below the age of 40 and one in her late 20s as Independent senators in this 11th Parliament. In passing, I also wish to mention that for the first time in the history of T&T, the Office of the President will be hosting a two-day retreat/workshop to sensitise the Independent senators of their duties and responsibilities in this Honourable Parliament.
I will continue in my clarion call for appropriate legislation to lower the age requirement to be in the Senate.
A Constitution must provide for the exceptional young man or woman that comes along in every generation.
There was a young man under the age of 25 that I came across who can match strides with many of us in this august chamber and he could have been appointed by this President if that bar was not in place.
I considered a First Class Honours student who is visually impaired as a possible Independent senator, but I was informed that it will take a year or so to put braille technology in place in the Parliament.
But this President is not giving up. I draw inspiration from the visually impaired the Honourable Kerry-Ann Ifill, the president of the senate in the Barbadian parliament.
How could I forget the Honourable Floyd Emmerson Morris, fully blind since school age, who persevered and obtained his Masters in Philosophy at UWI?
In 1998 at the age of 29 he became a senator and in 2013 became the president of the Jamaican senate. We must inculcate in our society, in our Parliament, real and genuine inclusivity for all of the citizens in T&T.
Yet all of us accept that Malala Yousafzai, that female activist in her youth, has done far more for education, youth, and woman empowerment than many world leaders and politicians in and out of their respective parliaments.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an era of enlightenment.
Informational reservoirs are in abundant supply and the young are demanding their space and their inclusivity in governance as never before and rightfully so.
Let me tell you a little story about the influence of education, values and the power of the youth perspective in governance.
Last week when I was put on the spot in my office by a 17-year-old about the need to amend the composition of the Privileges Committee, my first thought was that, as a nation, we must be doing something right—not because the Privileges Committee Rules do not need amending but because we are raising a future generation of young people who are not just involved, but passionate, about issues of governance, parliamentary procedures, independence and autonomy.
Murvani Ojah Maharaj is a Sixth Form student of Hillview College and he was, along with his classmates and colleagues of other schools, invited to attend a presentation of credentials ceremony for an ambassador at the Office of the President as part of a youth initiative I implemented since I assumed office.
This initiative affords our nation’s schoolchildren a personal and up-close view of diplomacy, international relations and global democracy at work—matters normally reserved for adults in these august halls of Parliament and elsewhere.
The young man submitted convincingly that the Privileges Committee, comprised as it is of members appointed by the Speaker in the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate in the Senate, both of whom are themselves politically appointed, can well lend itself to bias or the perception of bias and political alliances and interests in making decisions about the conduct or misconduct of parliamentary colleagues.
That is Murvani’s concern. And he mapped it out in a comprehensive letter to me subsequently, to be conveyed to you, the parliamentarians, if possible.
But there is a bigger, more lamentable picture that underlies this concern of bias, whether real or apparent, of the Privileges Committee. It is that even our young people are noticing the misconduct and misbehaviour of our country’s leaders and parliamentarians.
They are also noticing the blatant lack of consequences for such misconduct by our parliamentarians.
Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor who ironically participated in the resistance movement against the Nazis, said: “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children.”
Honourable members, think about the T&T we will leave to our children if we continue to throw stones at each other, in and out of the Parliament, on the radio and TV shows; if we persist in the tired insults and degradations of each other because one side does not agree with the other on a particular bill or policy, not on merit or demerit, but because of political and partisan allegiance.
Our young people are aware; they are paying attention and one day the young Murvanis will grow up and sit exactly in these seats of Parliament.
We often forget that our Parliament is the sanctum sanctorum of our democracy. It gives effect to our Constitution which guards our human and civil rights, liberties and responsibilities.
The people of T&T, those poorest, those wealthiest, those in-between, our young people—they all repose unflinching faith that our Parliament will deliver on their hopes, visions and expectations.
Honourable members, if we recognise and re-establish for ourselves the role of our Parliament as the sanctum sanctorum of our democracy, we are already on the right road.
The urgency of now beckons. The time to get our actions right is now.
A better democracy, and indeed, better politics, mean debating issues not people; avoiding distorted truth, fallacies, conspiracies and if I may coin it, “emotional unintelligence,” in our debates; and rather engaging values, facts, principles and truth.
I assure you the consequences of so doing will be the faster, more fluid and effective passage of progressive laws; harmony and decorum in our Parliament; and perhaps most impacting, that each of you honourable members, will be exemplars of honour and statesmanship to guide and inspire our young people.
Call it the audacity of hope on my part, but I believe we can reform our conduct and give our nation and especially our young people something to look up to and believe in.
Conclusion: Ladies and gentlemen, T&T as we stand here at the dawn of this new Parliament, the future is pregnant with possibilities.
Even though the current scenario is difficult, we must be positive in our approach to hard work, focused effort, teamwork which will put us on the threshold of a new era, one that is bright with the prospect of unlimited opportunities and challenges, along with the promise of continued reward.
It is at times like these that you should reflect thankfully on the commitment, determination and dedication to duty of all of those who are here today and also to those who have gone before who have contributed to our success thus far.
As we look forward to the activities of this 11th Parliament I am sure citizens may be expecting to see more actions that serve to strengthen the governance structure of state machinery, enhance disclosure and transparency, and foster an atmosphere of high ethical standards and compliance.
These measures will help to attract and protect investors, make the country more effective, and restore integrity to civil society governance.
Finally, to the parliamentarians.
Many of you present here today must be aware that you are the human face of the nation’s developmental thrust.
You are therefore a crucial point of interface between state action and the population.
That is why we are here today to give you this platform of positivity to kick off your deliberations that will contribute affirmatively to the future development of T&T.
To the many naysayers, I say broaden your horizons, think positively, have some faith, do good and be good.
You know, in the Bible at Matthew Chapter 6, Verses 25 to 33, there is a saying of “Oh ye of little faith.”
In that context, they are words of encouragement, not words of condemnation.
It is in this spirit that I call upon all present and not present to join with us as we launch the opening of this 11th Parliament.
May God bless you all. May you keep each other in your prayers and may God continue to bless this wonderful Republic of T&T.