A NEW Prime Minister is in place and a government is being assembled in Port-of-Spain. But the post-December 10 dilemma of democratic governance in Trinidad and Tobago is far from over. Indeed, it seems to have worsened late last week with no certainty now over the inauguration of the new 36-member Parliament, in which the United National Congress (UNC) and People's National Movement (PNM) have 18 seats each but no agreement on a Speaker.

Yesterday, the 56-year-old geologist and PNM leader, Patrick Manning, was expected to complete his very large, 25-member cabinet that includes his wife Hazel as Education Minister - after being appointed Senator - and a controversial former Foreign Minister of ten days as the new Foreign Minister, Knowlson Gift, another senatorial appointee.

Also yesterday, the 68-year-old lawyer and UNC leader Basdeo Panday was scheduled to explain to an emergency "assembly" of his party why the pre-Christmas "cooperation agreement" between him and Manning has been abandoned and why there must now be early fresh election.

A 10-point "heads of agreement" between then Prime Minister Panday and Opposition Leader Manning had left it to President ANR Robinson to choose a Prime Minister "in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago".

With the unprecedented 18-18 seats tie and rejection by Manning of Panday's offer for them to have a coalition or power-sharing governance arrangement, they first had to agree on a Speaker, who will have a casting vote to avoid a hung parliament and crippling of the governmental process.

Panday, to the surprise of some of his own leading cabinet and party colleagues, conceded to Manning's nomination of the retired Principal of the UWI, Professor Max Richards, as Speaker.

The Speaker
The message he was hoping to signal to President Robinson that with Richards, a publicly known PNM supporter as Speaker, the PNM in effect would be in control of parliament, while he, the incumbent, remained as Prime Minister with both parties advancing arrangements for fresh election.

But Robinson, who sought and obtained legal opinion that supported the concept of retaining the incumbent as Prime Minister - whose party obtained more popular votes than the combined votes of the other contesting parties - chose to do his own thing.

With the country's constitution silent on what happens in a situation as emerged with the December 10 election, Robinson took two weeks to act. Finally, he decided to rationalise his choice of Manning, over Panday, in the vague preamble of the constitution about "moral and spiritual values and the rule of law".

There is, of course, no precedent in the history of parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean region of the appointment of a Prime Minister whose party did not win an acknowledged free and fair election and who rejected an offer of the incumbent head of government to be part of a coalition or power-sharing arrangement.

Additionally, there is the factor of the electoral arithmetic of Panday' s UNC securing its 18 seats with 278,781 votes or 49.72 per cent to the Manning's PNM obtaining 259, 450 votes or 46.28 per cent - some three per cent less than the UNC which, objectively, did not lose the election.

The UNC's overall popular votes amounted to a plurality of some 5,066 more than the combined votes of the PNM and its election ally, Team Unity of former Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj.

Attack on Robinson
Amid the prevailing uncertainty yesterday of the next significant development on the future governance of Trinidad and Tobago, there came a blistering attack on President Robinson's role in the post-election search for solution from the leader of the National Democratic Party (NDP) in Barbados, Dr. Richie Haynes.

A former Finance Minister of a Democratic Labour Party administration, Haynes, whose NDP is not currently represented in parliament, described as “perverse” and a “giant step backwards”, the decision of “an unelected President to hand the government over to a party which did not win an election...”

It was not at all clear whether CARICOM would mandate Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of St. Lucia - who has lead responsibility for governance and justice in the 15-member Community, to attempt a mediating role between Panday and Manning now that their initial agreement to cooperate has fallen apart.

But Haynes' NDP is convinced that President Robinson may have exacerbated the political problems by his failure to come up with a “reasoned basis” for his decision other than relying on “vague exhortation in the preamble to the country's constitution on moral and spiritual vales”.

The NDP's leader feels that regional political and public opinion should focus on the implications for the region as a whole of a Head of State who has chosen “to ignore his status as an unelected, non-executive President, the fundamental of the democratic process, and the advice of every constitutional expert, local, regional and international....”

Robinson is not expected to get embroiled, again, in the new controversy over his decision. At least not before assessing developments this weekend in the camps of both the UNC and PNM, if at all.

And for Prime Minister Manning, a crucial factor at the moment, more than completing the shape of his cabinet and identifying his senators, is in reaching a new agreement with Panday on who should be Speaker, now that the UNC has rejected Max Richards on the ground that the PNM had concealed the fact that he was a “platform speaker” for the PNM's 1995 election campaign.

A 'Pandora Box'
There was precious little hope of any new agreement this weekend on a new Speaker. The country is, therefore, faced with a hung parliament, paralysis in government and likely rule by Executive fiat until Manning and Panday could reach a new agreement on a Speaker and date for an early election in 2002.

The UNC has claimed - an issue also raised by sections of the Trinidad and Tobago media - that not only did Robinson fail to explain the constitutional rationale for choosing Manning over Panday.

He seems to have opened a veritable 'Pandora box' by his emphasis on a statement that “freedom is founded on moral and spiritual values and the rule of law”, and it was against that background he “was able to come to his final decision”.

If Panday is now under fire from his party, as indicated by the demands for tomorrow's emergency UNC assembly over a "cooperation agreement" that went wrong, Manning also appears to be under pressure from his more hard-line PNM colleagues.

This is partly reflected in the composition of his still incomplete cabinet, with one notable absentee so far being former Finance Minister and deputy leader, Ken Valley, while his challenger for leadership, Keith Rowley, has been named Planning and Development Minister.

Political turmoil seems to be the constant game in town in a country where corporate interests and local, regional and international entrepreneurs remain apprehensive about the future for stability and good, democratic governance.

After two elections in a year, Trinidad and Tobago continues to maintain its unflattering image as a society where political bacchanal abounds.

But to the credit of the parties and people of the country, they do not translate their disagreements and anger to the sickening racial/political violence, the lootings, arson and general lawlessness that have emerged in CARICOM states like Guyana and Jamaica. At least not yet, and, hopefully, never.

As you prepare to usher in the New Year with new resolutions, spare a thought, light a candle or whisper a prayer also for crisis-plagued, poverty-stricken Haiti.