As previously posted, I firmly believe that the root of all of our problems here in Trinidad & Tobago begins and ends with race. So? How can we solve this seemingly intractable problem? I think that the answer lies in our British made/copied Constitution. You see, there are 41 seats or constituencies in T&T. Both major parties have a real lock on approximately 18 each with about 5 seats really in play at each general election every 5 years. And because of the demographics in each constituency that ain't gonna change any timesoon. Put another way, there is every incentive to vote race and so prevent "them" (whoever "them" might be) from gaining power.
But what if there was another way? Look: the reason for a 5 year term is fairly simple -it takes about 5 years (more or less) for any government policies to begin to work. Less time than that and a regime will not necessarily be able to do what is the right thing especially where that might entail unpopular policies; more time than that can lead to dictatorship.
But here is where the Americans seem to have got it right. (And, yes, I am aware of all the problems that they are having right now and the history behind those problems). They have a Lower House which is elected every 2 years, an Upper House elected every 6 years with a third of the Upper House facing re-election every 2 years, and a President/Chief Executive elected every 4 years.
What if we did a variant of that here? We could, for example, double the number of seats in our Lower House to 82 and elect them every 2 years. They would be full time parliamentarians with the responsibility in their districts for all that our current local councils have to do (lights, garbage collection, etc.) as well as legislative responsibilities (which would include things like budgets and other legislation). But because they would only be there for 2 years a lot of voters would be tempted to vote for a candidate from the "other side" if "their side's" candidate was simply a party hack and totally inefficient. The electorate then would have more reason to vote for somebody who would and could perform than for a hack. And if truth be known, we've got an awful lot of those on BOTH sides right now.
Then we could have a full time Upper House of, say, 41 Senators with one third facing re-election every 2 years but with every Senator having a full term of 6 years. This could prevent stupid legislation from getting through. For example, let's say that the Government wants to pass a law that all men must wear green pants. Then the President gets the support of the members of his party in the Lower House along with a few in the Upper House. But at the elections held every 2 years those politicians who supported this absurd 'green pants' law are booted out of office including those Senators who supported it and voted for it. Now, if you were one of those Senators who rather blindly supported your leader in this stupid law, and you were facing the polls in 2 years time, would you quietly drop your support for this stupid law knowing that it will lead to your political demise or will you go down with that sinking ship? Put another way, this system returns power to the people.
Then we could have a Chief Executive whose election and period in office is not linked to his party have a majority in either house. He/she would face the electorate every 4 years and could have a term limit placed on him/her (e.g., 2 terms as is the case in the United States).
I could go on, but hopefully the point is made: that this system would effectively reduce , if not eliminate, the reason to vote race. What do you think? If you don't like it what idea(s) do you have? Because, like it or not, our problems begin and end with race. We need to do whatever we can to make it unprofitable to vote race. If we don't it will only get worse.
P.S. An added bonus would be to reduce the power of those small cliques who control both main parties.
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