Prime Minister Patrick Manning says under the new constitution being proposed, an Executive President would be able to build a cabinet of experts who are unelected, thereby making the parliamentary arm stronger.

Speaking at the PNM’s public meeting in Sangre Grande on Monday night, Manning said that at present, the bulk of the Cabinet comes from the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament.

However, under the draft constitution, it is proposed that the leader of Government Business would be the majority leader of the House, whilst the Opposition Leader would be the minority leader.

He said that not more than four members of the House of Representatives would form part of the cabinet, whilst the balance would comprise of experts whose only prerequisite to sit on the Cabinet would be to have PNM membership.

Manning further explained that although the PNM is in power, their hands are tied behind their backs because of parliamentary obligations such as the Joint Select Committees (JSC). He said the JSC was a situation whereby ’Caesar is overlooking the work of Caesar’ and was not working properly.

He said under the new constitution, there would be a number of select committees for Government departments, statutory boards, foreign affairs, public accounts and service commissions.

’When you do it that way you now have a strong legislature that can act as proper oversight mechanism to the work of the Executive,’ Manning, who was celebrating his 63rd birthday on the day, told the crowd.

He said a system that allows the effective appointment of Independent Senators still needs to be worked out. Currently, the President appoints the nine independent senators, but with the proposed Constitution there would no longer be a President but an Executive President.

Manning also made it clear that the PNM strongly rejects a proportional system of Government.

’The Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the PNM, rejects any system of governance based on proportional representation. You know why? Because it leads to weak governments, it leads to coalition governments around the world,’ Manning said.

He added that the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) was a coalition government and when one looked back, that party did not have much of a track record.

Manning said he had attended a seminar in London in 2000 and a Minister of Government from Sri Lanka said that proportional representation would work if there was a problem with geography. However, he stressed that this would not be the case if the problem was one of race.

Manning said that Minister warned that proportional representation should not be touched, because it would ensure the supremacy of one race over the next and lead to civil unrest and destabilisation of society.