is being protected by a device which can be used to thwart the
 will of the electorate in general. Secondly, elected representatives
 are directly encouraged under this system to indulge in irres-
 ponsible behaviour. All too easily can their failure be attributed
 to the hostility of the nominated members; and there will be a
 constant temptation to make extravagant electoral promises
 knowing that they will be opposed by a sufficient nominated
 vote against them to absolve them from the responsibility of
 matching their promises by their performance."

 3. Continuation of the travesty which we now call the ministerial
 system. The ministerial system involves a Prime Minister, the majority
 leader who selects his cabinet; he is responsible to the lower house and
 is secure so long as he retains its confidence. The system introduced
 into Trinidad in 1950, which the Committee proposes to perpetuate, is
 based on the right of the Governor to ignore and bypass the leader of
 the largest party and on election of the Ministers by majority vote of the
 Legislative Council, which can remove them only by a two-thirds vote.
 What you get is merely five people, who behave like five people. It
 inevitably produces a system such as the one on which Edmund Burke
 poured eloquent scorn in 1780 before the emergence of the modern party
 system in Britain :

 He made an administration, so checkered and speckled;
 he put together a piece of joinery, so crossly indented and whim-
 sically dove-tailed ; a cabinet so variously inlaid ; such a piece of
 diversified mosaic ; such a tesselated pavement without cement;
 here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white ; patriots and
 courtiers; king's friends and republicans; Whigs and Tories;
 treacherous friends and open enemies ;-that it was, indeed, a
 very curious show; but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to
 stand on."

 A system more absurd than the Ministerial system in Trinidad in
the past five years cannot be found. Take one recent example. One
Minister introduces a bill to jail motorists who exceed the speed limit.
He goes away. His place is filled temporarily by another Minister who
opposes the jail clause. Minister No. 1 then returns to tell us that the
bill was not approved by the Executive Council in the first instance.
What sort of monkey business is this ? The farce on the Government
benches is paralleled only by the farce on the Opposition benches. There
is no Opposition like the Trinidad Opposition anywhere in the world.
The Legislative Council of Trinidad and Tobago is unique in the world.
It consists of two clearly defined parties "-the Ins and the Outs. The
Ins don't want to get out; the Outs only want to get in. What is going
to be the power of a Chief Minister in such a situation ? He cannot
choose his colleagues; the Legislative Council chooses them. He cannot
remove his colleagues; he must get a two-thirds vote of the Council.
Since there is no party programme, he cannot even take them before the
Council and advocate removal, for his case would have to be based on
proceedings in the Executive Council which are secret.


E_ =