 Prof. Clive Landis, vice-chancellor dan principal of the Kevil campus, our celebrated professor for tonight, Professor Cynthia Barro Giles, members of the senate, members of the campus community, I think director of school or head of school of the graduated citizen research Kevil, Dr. Shoma Roberts, and deans, heads of department, students of the university and of course specifically students of Professor Barro Giles who I think have always followed her and are following her tonight as well, members of our online audience and also our viewers on our 12 Vue TV channels, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, friends, good evening. My name is Tanesan Joseph and I am very, very pleased to serve as your chair for tonight's professorial lecture. Professorial lectures constitute part of an academic tradition, a university tradition in which our colleagues who have attained the highest rank of academic achievement are offered a platform to present their work or aspects of their work to an audience and to give the community a chance to celebrate with our colleagues and the school for graduate citizen research is primarily responsible for organizing this series and tonight we are very, very pleased to be hosting the professorial lecture by Professor Cynthia Barro Giles on constitutional reform in the Converse Caribbean, some insights, compromises and possibilities. To give you formal remarks, I invite Senator Dr. Christina Hines who is the head of department of government, social and social work and psychology at Keyville to do so. Dr. Hines. Good evening, everyone. Dr. Tanesan Joseph, master of ceremonies, Chief Justice of Barber, this is not here, so let's get that one. Members of the cabinet, members of judiciary, Professor Clive Landis, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Cynthia Barro Giles, presenter, members of the Senate, members of the campus community, especially invited guests, members of our online audience and of the media, ladies, gentlemen, all, I bring greetings from the department of government, sociology, social work and psychology. Dr. Joseph said I was going to bring formal remarks. Indeed I will not. I will bring some remarks but they will not be altogether formal and I would like to start quite informally just by offering a bit of a reflection. Sometimes I'm not the best person to give a microphone to and a stage. And sitting this evening thinking about Professor Barro Giles, I was reflecting on meeting her for the first time. I was a new lecturer, newly minted PhD, 26 years of age, eager at KFIL campus and I had heard of this lady, Miss Barro Giles. I was told that she was a dragon lady. That's what I was told. And this dragon lady was the second examiner for my course, Women in Politics. I was really excited to teach this. I was very generous with the marks and we had a wonderful encounter. She was very straightforward with me, maybe a bit blunt and I then understood this nickname. But upon the nickname, I have to say that I know she doesn't even remember but Professor Barro Giles has really been an inspiring colleague, a hardworking colleague and someone perhaps who is a bit misunderstood because she is so straightforward and perhaps sometimes blunt. On behalf of the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology, I would like to congratulate Professor Barro Giles in her achievement when I got the news of her elevation, I felt as if I was swaddled in a blanket of joy. I was so happy to hear that she reached this level. It is truly deserving and the department shares in her elevation when she succeeds, when any of us succeed, we all succeed. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about this department, the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology. It was established as a Department of Government and Sociology in 1976 and since then it has grown to GSSWP, this long name that we have to encompass Social Work and Psychology. It is a truly multi-disciplinary department comprising 13 full-time faculty, 15 part-time or adjunct faculty and three ATS staff, they service the department. We offer over 40 programs for the student complement at the end of 2022 of 700 students and these 700 students include 605 undergraduate students and 95 postgraduate students. They participate in 40 programs and these include at the postgraduate level MFILs and PhDs, those are research degrees in political science, sociology and social work. We have many interesting top master's degrees as well in e-governance, psychology, applied and counseling psychology and we have programs on the way. These disciplines are exciting and useful and our department has a vision and I would like to share this vision. The vision of GSSWP is to position the department as a globally competitive innovative department that is a hub for specialist knowledge in critical social sciences disciplines that is committed to the advancement of Caribbean development through student center teaching and learning, cutting edge research and excellent public service. The department seeks to position itself as a globally competitive innovative department that is a hub for specialist knowledge in critical social science disciplines committed to advancement of Caribbean development through student center teaching and learning, cutting edge research and excellent public service. Why do we bring this vision? This is because Professor Baru Geles Prof. Barrow Gels, Prof. of Constitutional Governance and Politics embodies this vision to the letter. She is a specialist. She has specialist knowledge in a critical social science discipline. The critical one to me, but I'm biased. Political science. She illustrates a commitment to the advancement of Caribbean development through student-centered teaching and learning to be sure. Trough cutting-edge research, most definitely. Commitment to excellence in public service, this cannot be denied. Her efforts have contributed to positioning GSSWP, our department as a globally competitive and innovative one. We have a lot to learn from Prof. Barrow Gels. She is the longest serving member of GSSWP at present. She is our lone professor. She has worked really hard to achieve this rank. And today we celebrate her. Tonight we celebrate her. We have a strange way of celebrating people at universities. When they achieve the highest rank, we make them do more work. So you've achieved the highest rank and now you're going to work. Show us that you're actually a professor. And we look forward to hearing what you have to say tonight. GSSWP, in addition to celebrating you, we extend our gratitude to you for your contributions and your stellar service to the UWA, to this campus, to the Faculty of Social Sciences, to the Department of Course, to the region and to yourself. Well done, Prof. Barrow Gels. I wish you a splendid lecture. Terima kasih, Dr. Heinz, untuk menjelaskan kebanyakan dan menikmati cinta-cintaan. Saya akan meminta Prof. Landis untuk memberikan kejutan untuk kita, Prof. Landis. Terima kasih, M. Seed, Dr. Tennyson Joseph. Mereka adalah kebanyakan, mempunyai kejutan. Prof. Cynthia Barrow Gels adalah perempuan ini. Mereka adalah kejutan. Perempuan dari komuniti kampus, kejutan yang terkenal, alam ni, perempuan dari audience online, perempuan dari media, lelaki dan lelaki, selamat malam. Ini adalah kejutan yang terbaik untuk menyelamatkan semua orang, di sini, di tepung Warnath Theatre dan di online, kejutan oleh Prof. Cynthia Barrow Gels. Prof. Konstitut, kejutan kejutan dan politik. Cynthia Barrow Gels adalah sebuah nama yang terkenal dan dikawal daripada perempuan. Dan prof. ini adalah sebuah kejutan yang terkenal. Cynthia adalah perempuan untuk bagaimana saya ingin melihat semua akademik-akademik kita, mengetahui kejutan dan kerja mereka dalam kejutan publik. Sebelumnya, akademik-akademik kita mengetahui kejutan yang terbaik untuk komitis nasional dan perempuan atau agensi internasional dan kejutan atau kejutan, dan tiada siapa tahu tentangnya. Orang ini, atau kejutan, mungkin syainas, perempuan yang anda katakan, sebenarnya menerima sebuah strategi kampus yang dikawal daripada perempuan dari ide kita. Seperti kampus KFIL memperkenalkan perempuan dari perempuan di society. Dan juga perempuan untuk perempuan sendiri menggabungkan perempuan dengan kejutan. Saya akan fokus di sini hari ini, tentang bagaimana perempuan membuat perempuan di society dan kenapa prof. Barrow Gels adalah sebuah exemplar dalam perjalanan ini. Perempuan Yui dibuatkan untuk memaksa perempuan di tiga jenis. Pemunjukan, bekerja dan menerima. Perempuan ini dimana-mana perempuan Yui di kejutan yang paling tinggi. Perempuan-Perempuan untuk kejutan di perempuan, perempuan perempuan untuk kejutan di perjalanan dan perempuan para perempuan untuk kejutan di perempuan. Ketiga kategori yang sama diperkenalkan di sebuah kebiasaan universiti dengan award vice-chancellor yang berkongsi. Prof. Barrow Giles menangis award yang paling tinggi untuk kebiasaan yang ibu boleh menghubungkan. Wajar vice-chancellor yang menangis award untuk kejutan dalam kejadian ke public service 2021. Ini menghubungkan sebuah kejadian yang terkenal dalam kejadian kejadian yang tinggi untuk kejadian kejadian ke public service 2021. Tolong beritahu kejadian itu. Misi yang penting itu diperkenalkan pada kejadian kejadian kejadian ke public service 2021. Tetapi sebelum ini juga menghubungkan kejadian kejadian ke public service. Dari kejadian kejadian ke public service Pada tahun 2011, kita semua tahu bahawa dia sekarang penyelamatkan kepada Komisi Barbeda Restoran Konstitutin Sebenarnya, Prof. Barrow-Giles adalah epitome akademik Kave Hill yang membuat perjalanan di society daripada ide-ianya, yang di hadapan dia adalah perjalanan dan pengalaman yang dia telah dikenali untuk di dalam perjalanan Konstitutin dan proses pilihan. Biar saya menyebabkan sebagai penyelamat bahawa apapun perjalanan di U.E. kepada rangka profesori adalah tergantung pada perjalanan penyelamat oleh tiga penyelamat internasional di dalam perjalanan yang perlu menjadikan perjalanan yang unanam pada apakah perjalanan penyelamat mengalami penyelamat internasional yang diharapkan oleh seorang prof. Jadi, ia bersyukur bahawa U.E. komuniti menghormati prof. baru yang telah dikenali pada pilihan penyelamat yang telah dikenali mereka benar-benar menjadikan penyelamat akademik. Biar saya menjadikan perjalanan saya dengan meminta anda menjadikan tempat ini apabila ia menjadikan perjalanan tentang perjalanan dan perjalanan di U.E. Seperti perjalanan kita menjadikan perjalanan penyelamat dan perjalanan penyelamat setelah tahun ini. Bersyukur bahawa penyelamat yang boleh dikenali untuk menjadikan perjalanan penyelamat dan perjalanan penyelamat yang dihormati oleh staff KFL. Tolong menikmati perjalanan penyelamat dan perjalanan penyelamat di Perjalanan Penyelamat oleh Prof. Sintia Barra Giles dengan siapa yang KFL selamat menikmati. Terima kasih, Prof. Landis dan maaf saya untuk tidak mengenali mempunyai perjalanan penyelamat Selamat malam dan terima kasih. Dan juga mempunyai perjalanan penyelamat. Sebelum menghubungi perjalanan penyelamat, kita perlu membuat perjalanan penyelamat dan perjalanan penyelamat untuk membuat perjalanan penyelamat dengan sesuatu musik dan lebih spesifikasi dengan musik pan. Dan untuk mengambil perjalanan penyelamat saya sekarang meminta Prof. Joel Devanesh dia seorang pelajar seorang pelajar seorang pelajar seorang pelajar dan seorang pelajar seorang pelajar seorang pelajar Sekarang awak pernah dengar banyak perkara yang baik tentang Prof. Sintia Barra Giles dan tiada masalah sebelum malam awak akan mendengar banyak perkara yang baik tentang Prof. Sintia Barra Giles. Apa yang awak belum dengar Prof. Sintia Barra Giles seorang pelajar Saya boleh bercakap dengan keadaan itu kerana saya adalah seorang pelajar Saya rasa saya adalah seorang pelajar yang dia fikir dan hanya untuk menarik saya akan pergi ke pelajar sebelum saya orang seperti Dawn Marshall Peter Wickham Persombroom banyak perkara yang awak dengar dalam pelajar politik dan keadaan saya akan menunjukkan yang terbaik oleh Prof. Sintia Barra Giles Sebelum malam ini saya sedang berfikir bagaimana banyak pelajar yang akan mempunyai pelajar yang dia mungkin membuat dan saya mungkin memikirkan tiga atau empat, saya tahu dalam Dominika, saya boleh berfikir seorang pelajar saya boleh berfikir banyak Prof. Sintia Barra Giles apabila pelajar berfikir apabila pelajar berfikir pelajar berfikir dan belajar sebagai seorang pelajar, saya akan berfikir seorang pelajar yang terbaik mengenai pelajar yang terbaik mengenai pelajar yang terbaik dan saya ingat saya selalu berfikir bukan saya, tapi saya rasa saya perlu menjadi pelajar kerana anda tahu jika anda melihat pelajar dan ada beberapa pelajar yang berdiri, anda selalu melihat Sintia Barra Giles dengan pelajar yang berfikir bagi pelajar yang dia berfikir sebagai seorang pelajar dan untuk menarik itu, segala-galanya mempunyai pelajar yang dia berfikir seorang yang saya akan panggil sekarang untuk memberikan pelajar yang berfikir Prof. Barra Giles yang anda melakukannya saya rasa ini akhirnya себя berlinak dengan pelajar yang berfikir jika anda melakukannya dan Prof. Barra Giles akan berfikir setelah itu, Prof. Barra Giles telah melakukan pelajar yang anda berfikir dan saya berfikir Prof. Barra Giles akan berfikir yang saya melakukannya untuk melakukannya dan saya berfikir Prof. Barra Giles akan melakukannya Prof. Cynthia Barra-Giles, Presenter, Pemenang dari Senat, Pemenang dari Community Campus, Special Invited Guests, Pemenang dari Audience Online, Pemenang dari Media, Pemenang-pemenang-pemenang, Selamat malam. Saya menghantar ini kerana saya tidak mahu masa untuk berhenti disebabkan protokol. Saya mesti menghantar daripada bagaimana menerima saya untuk menjadi sebahagian-bihagian Profesor ini, apabila keadaan paling mudah tetapi sebahagian-bihagian yang paling susah dan mempunyai keadaan yang sejarz untuk menarik Prof. Cynthia Barra-Giles dalam beberapa minit. Tapi saya fikir ini sebabnya sepatutnya llegat dengan pengubahan dan saya menyesuaikan suatu masalah untuk Prof. Cynthia Barra-Giles dengan lima perubahan yang tidak digunakan tapi keadaan teruk dan kemungkinan teruk. Pernah perempuan Prof. Cynthia Barra-Giles yang berhenti dan menghantar hidup-hidup dan kemahiran dan kemahiran sosial dan jenis jenis dan memastikan bahawa fabrik demokratik dari civilisasi kekaribian adalah kritis-kritis dan berikan dengan bergantung dan kemahiran praktik dan kemahiran untuk mengubahkan politik demokratik kita untuk mengubahkan kisah kemahiran dengan reform konstisional Sebelumnya, Prof. Cynthia Barajal telah mengalami Prof. Gwana dan politik dari KKW dan juga seorang seorang seorang pelajar dalam program kisah konstisional di Universiti Texas di kelas Austin 2022 setelah membeli bahan-bahan dan kisah politik dan MSC dan MFIL di sekolah konsortiasi kekaribian sosial Prof. Barajal adalah seorang kekaribian dan seorang kisah sosial kekaribian di KKW pada tahun 2018 dan seorang kekaribian sosial kekaribian sosial dan psikologi dan seorang kekaribian Prof. Barajal telah mempunyai kekaribian dan mengajar beberapa pelajar tetapi tidak memutuskan kekaribian politik dan seorang kekaribian dan seorang kekaribian dan seorang seorang kekaribian Sebelum kekaribian Prof. Barajal seorang kekaribian berusaha dari kisah seuretik dan seorang kekaribian kekaribian kekaribian dikawal dari sekeliling Prof. Barajal telah mempunyai 3 pakaian sistem integriti nasional dan kekaribian KKW wanita kekaribian dan pakaian kekaribian kekaribian yang saya ada sekarang Ia juga mempunyai 2 pakaian bersama Prof. Don Marshal hidup di kawal masalah kekaribian dan kekaribian bersama Dr. Joseph dan mempunyai kekaribian KKW kekaribian tahun 1992-2015 Setiap pakaian menghidupkan kekaribian kekaribian dari kekaribian kekaribian dan menunjukkan bagaimana pada beberapa masa di kisah kita kita telah membuat dan mengetahui sistem politik, kultur, dan kekaribian kekaribian Prof. Barajal juga mempunyai 22 pakaian menggunakan masalah kekaribian OECS, kekaribian dan kekaribian kekaribian kekaribian kekaribian kekaribian kekaribian dikawal banyak lagi Tapi kekaribian Prof. Barajal akan menghidupkan kekaribian kekaribian Jika saya tidak mengatakan akademik kerja di politik wanita dan saya menyebut dari sebuah kisah yang mengikuti untuk menghidupi dan fokus pada beberapa wanita yang telah menghargai kekaribian politik mengenai bahawa kerja di regionnya mempunyai sebuah maksimal kekaribian politik seperti Eric Williams tetapi mengenai bahawa wanita menghadapi diskriminasi untuk menghidupi kekaribian politik dengan cara yang penting dari kekaribian patriaki di jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan Ini adalah sebab negara dan menutupi kekaribian kekaribian di jalan-jalan dan kekaribian politik Untuk pelajaran dan parti yang menangis anda masih mempunyai masa untuk mendapatkan kekaribian kekaribian tidak hanya kerana ia mempunyai kekaribian kekaribian dan telah memperkenalkan saya bahawa anda tidak memperkenalkan kekaribian dan sekarang adalah masa untuk membuang Prof. Barajal juga mempunyai 16 pabuk di jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan dan Prof. Barajal yang seperti yang kita panggil cbg juga mempunyai pabuk mengenai jalan-jalan dan memperkenalkan saya untuk mengenai pengetahuan dengan Barbatas Today dan lain dalam alih kuali memperkenalkan itu. Ya, itu cbg untuk anda. Memperkenalkan itu. Dia telah memberi belajar pada mesyuarat, seminar, mesyuarat meja, mesyuarat panel, pakaian podcast, dan listan berlaku. Tetapi lebih penting, atau terakhir, Prof. Barajal mempunyai jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan di Gambia, Sri Lanka, negara Asia dan negara lain di Kormoran, Karibia. Tetapi lebih recent, seperti yang Prof. Shansler beritahu, seorang pemimpin yang mempunyai jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan untuk memperkenalkan jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan dalam alih kuali pandemik. Prof. Barajal juga memperkenalkan jalan-jalan mengenai jalan-jalan dari 2005-2011 dan mempunyai Minister Mia Motley sebagai pembantu kepada Barbaida Transisyon Republikan dan terutamanya memperkenalkan jalan-jalan untuk Pemeriksaan Pemimpin untuk Pemimpin Pemimpin dan Pemimpin Pemimpin untuk Pemimpin Pemimpin dan untuk Pemimpin Pemimpin dan untuk Pemimpin Pemimpin untuk Pemimpin Pemimpin Pemimpin Pemimpin untuk memperkenalkan jalan-jalan di jalan-jalan ber sagang kubut jalan yang varios dan kubut jalan-jalan dan kubut jalan-jalan sebagai pembantu jalan-jalan untuk Pemeriksaan Pembantu Prof. Barajal pada penghidupan Pemimpin Pemimpin me boris dan ke selvahan Selamat pagi, saya akan menggunakan masjid untuk beberapa alasan ini malam ini, tetapi saya fikir bahawa saya bercakap dengan senang bahawa anda akan dapat mendengar saya. Jika anda tidak, tolong beritahu saya dan saya akan... Mungkin saya akan mengambil masak saya. Selamat malam. Dr. Tennyson Joseph. Masjid atau cerimani. Pembentangan kabinet. Pembentangan jenis. Prof. Clive Landis. Prof. Chancellor dan Principal Campus. Pembentangan kabinet. Pembentangan komuniti Campus. Pembentangan jenis. Sama-sama, pembentangan jenis. Pembentangan pembentangan jenis. Pembentangan media. Pembentangan jenis. Saya berharap untuk mulakan dengan mengucapkan... ...Pembentangan Campus untuk berbual. Saya juga berharap untuk... ...terima kasih... ...tapi saya juga berharap untuk berterima kasih... ...Pembentangan Dr. Heinz... ...untuk cara yang berharap untuk berbual. Saya tidak berfikir saya berbual. Saya rasa saya ada beberapa kandungan. Dan banyak orang tidak suka kandungan. Dan itu adalah masalah. Saya bukan kandungan. Saya tidak boleh menjadi kandungan dan pada masa yang sama... ...saya menjadi pembentangan. Saya sangat bergaduh kepada pembentangan. Saya rasa itu adalah keadaan keadaan. Saya tidak boleh menjadi keadaan keadaan. Dan terutamanya banyak orang... ...terima kasih pada kandungan. Tetapi itu bukan kandungan saya. Jadi, kami berbual. Saya bukan kandungan. Saya lebih kandungan. Tetapi... ...saya tidak terima kandungan ini. Baiklah, ini sangat penting. Baiklah, tapi saya mahu berterima kasih... ...Rahim. Dan anda dapat faham kenapa saya memilih... ...Rahim untuk memperkenalkan saya. Ya, ini tidak biasa. Dan saya mempunyai untuk memperkenalkan dia pada akhirnya. Untuk melakukan begitu. Tetapi, Rahim adalah salah satu perempuan... ...yang bahawa bahawa perempuan... ...saya memperkenalkan banyak tutorial saya... ...semasa saya mendapat keadaan... ...dengan perempuan saya. Mungkin itu adalah sebabnya... ...saya akan berkata, Rahim. Mungkin saya tidak perlu bercakap dengan perempuan ini. Apa yang mereka benar-benar perlu melihat adalah... ...perempuan lain. Apa yang saya akan lakukan... ...saya meminta Rahim ke tutorial ini. Selepas perempuan memperkenalkan tutorial ini... ...saya akan berkata, Rahim... ...saya akan bercakap dengan mereka. Kamu ambil keadaan, kamu beritahu mereka... ...apa yang mereka betul. Kamu beritahu mereka... ...apa yang mereka salah. Dan dia membuat... ...dan mereka mengadakan keadaan... ...sebab itu adalah salah satu perempuan. Dan apa yang Rahim dapat lakukan... ...sebab memperkenalkan perempuan... ...saya akan memperkenalkan mereka... ...untuk memperkenalkan sesuatu lebih... ...sebelum mereka dapat melalui. Dia sangat berjaya. Dia adalah seorang pelajar yang banyak... ...lepas pelajar dan pelajar di pelajar... ...saya selalu minta dia... ...menolak pelajar untuk beritahu saya... ...mereka mempunyai keadaan pelajar... ...dan dia melakukan begitu dengan baik... ...dia juga memperkenalkan saya... ...saya rasa hanya seperti 21... ...dan kadang-kadang... ...sebelum keadaan terakhir... ...dalam perempuan... ...dia sebenarnya memperkenalkan... ...pada pemerikannya OAS. OAS menghubungi saya. Dia menghubungi saya. Ya, dia menghubungi saya. Dia menghubungi saya. Saya menghubungi dia dan Kai. Kai juga di sini. OAS menghubungi saya. Mereka adalah seorang pelajar... ...Augustin Joseph. Dia sangat muda... ...dan memperkenalkan pengalaman terakhir. Dia memang sangat bergantung... ...dan sangat berjaya. Mereka sebenarnya memperkenalkan... ...dan dia memperkenalkan pengalaman terakhir... ...dan itu sebabnya dia tidak dapat... ...partisipi. Saya tidak pasti... ...saya gembira di sini. Saya rasa saya seperti... ...seorang pelajar lain... ...yang hanya ingin membuat perniagaan... ...tapi ini adalah... ...partisan dan perniagaan terakhir... ...saya rasa saya adalah pelajar. Jadi ia akan berjaya... ...tetika malam ini... ...saya memilih... ...partisan... ...pengalaman... ...pemiliki penyakit... ...dan walaupun saya tidak akan memiliki... ...pemiliki pembinaan yang sangat terstruktur... ...pengalaman berlainan... ...yang saya memberitahu saya akan mempercayakan... ...dan saya hanya akan mempercayakan... ...dan saya tidak akan bercakap... ...dan berkata, ini adalah permainan yang... ...kita perlu membuat... ...dan ini adalah kemungkinan... ...tapi saya harap pada akhir kisah... yang akan mempunyai keselamatan yang kita di Karyabian harus membuat dalam hubungan keperluan. Dan, tentu saja, memberikan keperluan untuk menggunakan beberapa kemungkinan. Jadi, dalam bahagian saya, saya mahu berjalan dengan membuat beberapa observasi yang panjang tentang keperluan keperluan di Karyabian. Saya juga mahu menggunakan keperluan keperluan hari ini. Dan anda akan perlu minta maaf, tetapi, tentu saja, jika kita mulakan bila-bila kita mula bercakap tentang keperluan keperluan, bahawa beberapa orang mencari dan membuangkan, ia pasti akan membuat kita sekitar 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 jam. Dan itu tidak mungkin. Dan anda tidak mahu mendengar seseorang menggunakan keperluan keperluan keperluan keperluan. Dan kemudian, apa yang saya telah lakukan, adalah untuk menggunakan keperluan keperluan keperluan. Beberapa kemungkinan untuk menjelaskan hari ini. Sebelum kemungkinan yang saya akan menjelaskan kerana ia sangat menghidupkan apa yang telah terjadi dalam beberapa kemungkinan di Karyabian. Dan itu bukan hal yang baru-baru. Selepas itu, salah satu perkara yang saya memutuskan adalah untuk mengambil kemungkinan yang sangat dekat pada cara yang kita memanjakan keperluan keperluan keperluan di Karyabian. Saya akan menjelaskan mungkin sekejap-kejap hanya bercakap dan itu untuk membuat kemungkinan yang penting untuk menggunakan keperluan keperluan. Tapi saya akan menjelaskan sekejap-kejap mengenai keperluan keperluan keperluan. Dan kemudian saya mahu bergerak untuk mengenai apa yang penting untuk mengenai keperluan keperluan di Karyabian. Dan itu adalah untuk menjelaskan apa yang saya terpaksa apa yang kita berbual sebagai keperluan keperluan atau seperti yang Richard Albert katakan, keperluan keperluan keperluan dan untuk menjelaskan untuk mengenai keperluan keperluan saya benar-benar mengfrustrasi keperluan keperluan kita di Karyabian. Dan tentu-tentu sebab saya begitu intimiditi dan saya begitu intimiditi seperti yang anda dengar terlibat dalam keperluan keperluan keperluan keperluan. Sebuah keperluan yang berhasil beberapa-ber beberapa tahun, tidak ada keperluan keperluan dan keperluan keperluan itu, seperti banyak keperluan yang saya telah melihat di Karyabian, saya merasa bahawa mungkin apa yang saya patut lakukan adalah mengambil sebuah periksa sebuah keperluan keperluan keperluan keperluan itu. Sebuah keperluan sebenarnya saya rasa saya sangat mengenai keperluan keperluan untuk membeli dan kemungkinan keperluan keperluan keperluan keperluan keperluan. Adakah saya rasa keperluan? Tidak. Adakah saya faham kenapa mereka melakukan begitu? Sebenarnya, ya. Dan itu beberapa keperluan saya rasa kita benar-benar perlu mengambil keperluan. Kemudian, tentu saja, saya akan membuat beberapa keperluan dengan membuat beberapa keperluan untuk keperluan keperluan. Dalam keperluan saya, saya hanya ingin memulai keperluan keperluan. Dan itu benar-benar menarik, tetapi saya rasa saya perlu mengatakannya kerana ada beberapa orang di audience yang mempunyai fakta-fakta lelaki yang beritahu saya beberapa kali lalu bahawa apabila saya akan melakukan lelaki Profesor saya, dia akan datang dengan saya. Saya tidak tahu kenapa dia memilih keperluan. Dia seorang lelaki. Saya seorang sikap politik. Dan kemudian, saya akan memulai keperluan keperluan. Jadi saya akan memulai keperluan dan semoga anda tidak akan datang dengan saya. Dan itu adalah untuk berkata bahawa saya bukan lelaki keperluan. Saya bukan lelaki keperluan. Dan seluruhnya, seperti cara saya menjelaskan ekonomi, apabila lelaki begini menjelaskan ekonomi, mereka tahu itu. Saya hanya memulai keperluan saya kerana saya tidak faham bahawa mereka memulai keperluan. Dan saya tidak memikirkan yang banyak orang faham dan akan bercakap dengan saya. Jadi, keperluan kami, seperti yang Dr. Heinz beritahu saya, lebih jauh saya rasa lebih besar daripada keperluan mereka. Jadi saya bukan lelaki keperluan. Dan terlalu banyak lelaki keperluan dan bukan hanya lelaki keperluan, tapi saya tidak mengenal lelaki keperluan. Saya tidak melihat lelaki keperluan sebagai dokument yang legal. Dan ya, lelaki keperluan adalah dokument yang legal. Tapi lelaki keperluan juga adalah lelaki keperluan politik. Lelaki keperluan adalah lelaki yang... saya akan kata lelaki keperluan yang berlaku. We must also note that society is also in constant flux and consequently a constitution cannot remain immutable. I therefore have very deep concerns about those in the constitution strictly in legalistic terms and adopt therefore a legalistic and textual reading of the constitution without understanding that the very nature of the constitution makes it a political document. It is after all about the organization of our political system, the nature of the relations between and among branches, a system of checks and balances and veto points and yes, about rights. It is above all about power, governance and therefore our constitution in the Commonwealth Caribbean and indeed world constitutions genuinely seek to address how precisely those who exercise political power can be held accountable through clearly demarcated political processes. This is my interest and while arguably there are hundreds of issues that are rightful assessment, I have chosen to confine and therefore shape my presentation around just a few of these political and constitutional matters. If I didn't do so, we would run the risk of being locked in here tonight because when it comes to matters of the constitution in the Caribbean, I can in fact go on indefinitely. But I want you to permit me some freedom to engage in some form of vulgarism or simplification of what I see as a divide in the narrative on constitutional reform. As I said before, some see the constitution as a legal text only and therefore what they do is to elevate the role of the judiciary for instance just for instance and they always seem to seek a legal solution to what may well be political problems. While others, I guess like myself, look at the political underpinance of that text. This has therefore often led to a political legal constitutionalism divide in the narrative around constitutional reform because of course there are those persons like myself who see constitutions largely as a matter of politics and of course having a very healthy if not disrupted view of the law and those who see the constitution simply as a matter of law or a legal instrument. But the two truthfully are inherently connected. That of course does not constitute the totality of the semen discord between the two but my presentation today will largely avoid that abyss in which I do not intend to be drawn though it will seem odd as I do invoke the necessity of certainty and judicial redress. Matters of constitution reformation rests on clear and guiding principles of such reform and are located in the belief in a system as I said before of checks and balances an independent judiciary, rule of law. For instance we talk about the rule of law as a system in which government itself is bound by the law in which all in society are treated equally under the law where the government authorities including the judiciary protect citizens aspirations for human dignity and which is accessible to its citizens. But the constitution and constitutional discourse is also about the protection of basic rights and even their entrenchment and of course it is about elections and we talk a lot about free unfair elections and we know of course even from the experience of the Caribbean that elections are not as free and as fair as we like to pretend so today of course we speak of credible elections designed to achieve as fast as possible fairness or equity and transparency. Now over a decade ago in a paper titled regional trends in constitutional developments in the Commonwealth Caribbean which was commissioned by the UN conflict prevention and peace forum and published in January 2010 although the document says 2011 I spoke of the nuts and bolts of constitutional re-engineering in the Commonwealth Caribbean that paper was a sort of stock taken of where we were at the time not worthy as a fact that in the intervening decade little if anything has changed I argued then that disappointedly few Caribbean governments had responded positively to the reports of the various CRCs and fewer have undertaken a thorough rewriting of the sections of the constitution that indeed weakened governance. I really ought to have said not one of them have in fact responded positively to the reports of the constitutional reform commissions and for me this is very vexing even while acknowledging that most countries in the region have maintained high levels of civil liberties and political rights and have enjoyed peaceful transitions during periods of regime changes it is vexing because as citizens we are left with little doubt that the Westminster arrangements has been wilting and is in dire need of reform. In that paper I also argued and our present constitutions do not represent in the true sense a social contract as they were handed down to the Anglophone Caribbean by the former colonial master Britain. In Belize for instance the constitutional conference held in London for various reasons excluded both the premier and the opposition and it bears repeating today that the late Professor Simeon Markintosh one of our own viewed these constitutions as a product of and I quote an oligarchic elitist exercise it concluded that because the collective self was not the author of the political community regionally these constitutions continue to be perceived as received instruments from former colonial masters and fundamentally illegitimate of subjection to imposition from outside end of quote. And therefore asserted that the independent constitutions are orders in council of the British Imperial Parliament amended versions of the colonial constitution while Bill of Rights engrafted onto them which allowed for a relatively easy transition from colony to an independent state. This continuity implied no important changes between the colonial and the independent constitutions. The parliamentary system remained virtually the same and the constitutions for the most part are said to have remained monakal. This is the view of Simeon Markintosh. But that was over a decade ago and in the interim our understanding of constitutional amendments and revisions appropriateness of reforms and the necessity of reform as in fact exploded in a way that few constitutionalists or scientists for instance considered and with it in my mind there is the necessity to take on board multiple issues which clearly I cannot discuss today given the constraints of time and also given the constraints of my interest. Be that as it may I must unfortunately, I have unfortunately drawn the conclusion that the process and outcome of Caribbean constitutional reform are not buttressed by big visions and they need to transform relations in the Caribbean. They are not necessarily processes that aim for remaking of our constitutional fabric and they are not always even processes that aim for obvious amendments that present themselves time and time again nor are the processes always defined by substantive discussions of critical issues. If anything I would say that some processes are marked by too many limitations and narrow elite and politically controlled objectives of the post-colonial political elites. The latter is sometimes revealed in the nature of and composition of the constitutional reform commissions themselves arising out of the strategies adopted to convene those constitutional reform bodies. In relation to the narrowness of the political objectives I would agree with the former chair of the Belize 1999 Political Reform Commission Dylan Vernon who argued in a recent paper and I quote it would be a lost opportunity if that is all that we do in relation to moving away from the monakal system to an infarct a republican system of course with a ceremonial president. When we do this Vernon continued we must make it more than just feel good symbolism and vision of figureheads which brings us to my second issue and more critical issue of constitutional reform or that process of making our constitution truly ours. We should make replace in the British Monarch just one part of a wider process of continuing our decolonization and forging a new and progressive constitution fit for our purpose our values and aspirations best for our good governance and that becomes a living instrument for guiding our sustainable development. Now at the CRCs that is the constitutional reform commissions which a constitutional reform commission is the typical body convened to consider constitutional reform and we need to ask ourselves whether or not those CRCs are genuinely representative of society at large Beyond this we must also consider the choice of leadership of the commissions and the class strictures under which some of these bodies operate which are either self-imposed through a lack of awareness of what is required a certain level of paralysis he has endlessly speeding in mud or which are limited given a deliberate decision to tether the commission with spoken and shared vision of the selectorate which is very narrow by the membership of the commission itself and worse, the latter is a farce of constitutional reform a vague attempt to give an appearance of inclusive that demands that minimally the people should be at the center of constitutional making it is a rather cynical view of people and democracy in general and understanding of democracy the pursuit of democracy as we understand it in today's context not the context of the 1930s not the context of the 1960s and not the context of the 1980s is relevant and I wish to quote therefore Prime Minister Ralph Gonzales or St. Vincent the Grandins who made some important observations in relation to constitutional reform and the importance of people in the process Gonzales noted many years ago and I quote constitutional reform is not a political abstraction it is a major political exercise in governance revolving real flesh and blood people awash with their peculiarities and contradictions conditioned by their socio-political history and contemporary reality the very exercise in constitutional making ought to involve an unprecedented campaign of structured mass political education of all the relevant philosophical practical, legal, political, historical and comparative issues this educational campaign ought to be as far as as far as the comparative political market can bear and national as distinct from a party political affair after all according to Gonzales the new constitution will go to the people and that is his raking reference St. Vincent the Grandins will go to the people in the referendum for approval so considerations of constitutional amendments represent an important watershed in the life of the people of the region it always requires legislative measures and sometimes but not always popular agreement in Barbados as you know already the change to republic required the former the latter was in fact not mandated even though the absence of a legal imperative ought not to always imply the absence of a moral or even a political imperative to ensure that there is popular agreement and that moral imperative seems to be what motivated Belize to commit to holding of a referendum even where such a handcuff does not exist whatever the politics of constitutional reform public participation remains vital to the process it is in the final analysis a way of imbuing the process of constitution making and hopefully the final outcome of the process with democratic legitimacy by way of the acceptance of the proposals which themselves and need to also secure legal legitimacy in some Caribbean jurisdictions given the codification given the codification of the rules governing constitutional changes this is notwithstanding the fact that public participation carries with it certain political risk and that is something that cannot be avoided is a risky undertaking it is always good politics then to involve the public through the process of constitution making public mobilisation is also very useful at the start of the process while the drafting phase is typically something that takes place behind closed doors even then the public cannot be excluded on the most constitutions in the final analysis on the final phase as the public is really what we can describe and I am boring from someone that I can't quite remember who it is here but I am boring from someone as the approvers of the final texts and this is clearly the case for places like St. Lucia the Bahamas and Vincent the Grandins and Grenada for example so sometimes I do critic the selection process of some of the CRCs and this is really a broad concern but I have to make the point that I am in fact very encouraged by the apparent attempt to really centre people in the process in some countries and the bipartisan nature of the exercise and we can make reference to St. Lucia and we can make reference for instance to the recent establishment of the People's Constitutional Commission of Belize and note what it says not a constitutional reform commission but the People's Constitutional Commission the PCC of Belize which was launched on November the 14th, 2022 and even though there were many representatives from civil society Belizeans I think objected to the process of selecting those individuals and also objected to the fact that some non-governmental organizations were in fact excluded from the process I would also like to say that ultimately in most jurisdictions the public as I indicated before cannot be spurned by the political given the constitutional guarantees or such inclusion by way of a referendum since they are the final approvers of the texts the irony of this however is that very often reform that is necessary that we recognize absolutely necessary can be killed by the referendum which has in fact led to some critics to describe the referendum as an odious mockery and handcuffs that shackles even though they are those that insist that notwithstanding this the referendum is important I want to make a very cautionary note on the bipartisan nature of the selection or the representation at the level of CRCs it is not a cure it is not a cure it is not a remedy it is not medicine it does not in fact signify that because you have bipartisan support for the process you had in St Vincent for instance in the beginning of the process as you had in St Lucia and elsewhere you don't see it sometimes in some countries it doesn't mean that automatically the process would in fact be be successful bipartisan support sometimes start at the beginning of the process but it has not always been consistent and especially so at the tail end of that process so why it is useful to be cautiously optimistic that turning down the adverse adversarial nature of Westminster politics in the context of much needed constitutional reform is healthy and good our history has shown that it can die a rather quick but painful death and we have seen that in Grenada we saw that of course certainly very clearly in St Vincent agrendings in 2009 I also want to make the point that all CRCs not all the processes of constitutional reform are internally motivated and sometimes we do get a situation and it's not very often but it has happened that is imposed by international organizations and powerful western governments and sometimes we could say indeed Karakoram itself all of this seeking to achieve a solution to what is essentially a domestic matter but which obviously the political elite has failed to tackle and so here I speak specifically of the 2000 process of constitutional reform in Guyana a process which was hurried working under the pressure of an internationally and regionally imposed deadline but which nonetheless achieved the limited objective set in that case the process unlike the others in the Commonwealth Caribbean was not aborted nor stalled nor did the process fail and it's not just the mandate of the commission but it's also the way in which the Guyanis approach the establishment of the commission again as a direct result of the input from the international community and of course Karakoram what we saw in Guyana is that they created a commission which had representatives from the major civil society groups all of the political parties etc interestingly the Guyanis also did not the Guyanis Government did not select the chairman of the commission either that person as indeed in the case of Belize that individual was actually selected by the members of the commission itself so in terms of so this is the broad context in which we are talking about constitutional reform and I'm very concerned with wether or not in terms of what has been taking place in the Caribbean in the last 20 or so years wether or not we can see any successes of constitutional reform what I'm seeing before me is really too much failure or processes that have in fact stalled and very few examples of a successful process so it is very useful to begin my examination by rehearsing some familiar points directly related to the broad issue of constitutional reform processes and the recommendations arising out of those processes now I'm really mindful that we have seen several constitutional amendments outside of the recommendations arising out of deliberately structured reform commissions but I'm going to confine myself to the issue of the functionality of our models and the extent to which recommendations can be both meaningful and as successful in that regard therefore I am going to reserve some time to look at some of the reports of the constitutional reform commissions across the Caribbean and to tease out why ultimately most have failed and at best as a solution case would show stalled and even when I say stalled I am a little conflicted about using that descriptor for the solution exercise largely because the report of the commission in 2011 it was not finally debated until 2016 and nothing not one thing has happened except of course this new prime minister has indicated that they are going to put a committee I think in place which will look at the report and determine what St. Lucia can usefully adopt and what in fact it will not adopt in speaking about the constitutional reform processes as you can see here I have labeled Barbados and that will be from 1998 to 2002 I have labeled Barbados and again I am a little concerned about where I locate Barbados as stalled and of course where at the level of the executive in 2005 but you know this is questionable because we are talking about something which took place nearly 20 years ago 2 generations ago so that it may not be stalled and maybe where it really belongs is in fact failed and then we can talk about the Barbados 2nd attempt and that is 2021 a very limited attempt and of course that was successful they made the transition to republic the Bahamas attempted in 2013 it failed at the level of the people the referendum was in the referendum which was defeated Belize 2000 again it failed and Grenada we have it failing at the level of the people again a referendum in 2016 and 2018 and in St Vincent's Grenada a colossal failure a huge bill went before the people and failed as well so we do have reform commissions so as I indicated there are a lot of things that we need to discuss but I can't discuss them what I'm going to do is to talk about what we see in the region in relation to 1st and 2nd generation Westminster constitutions and what we do know is that countries like ours Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago and the OECS countries which gained independence from the mid to the late 1970s and continue to the 1980s these were not 1st generation constitutions they were actually 2nd generation constitutions the 1st generation constitutions would have been constitutions like I'm talking about Westminster constitutions constitutions like India New Zealand Australia etc but our approach and the approach to constitutionalism was really political constitutionalism and therefore what they focused on was matters related to parliamentary democracy they didn't focus too much on legal constitutionalism and legal constitutionalism really marked the 2nd generation Westminster constitutions of the English speaking Caribbean countries so when you look at the 1st generation constitutions they tell it to lack judicially enforced rights and they were defined by limited constitutional entrenchments and also a reluctance it appears to codify the conventions as we understand them of parliamentary government on the contrary when you look at 2nd generation constitutions what we see is that they attempted to codify those things which the 1st generation constitutions appeared not to be very concerned about so that's one distinction between 1st and 2nd perhaps what we need to do is to have a marriage of the 2 things in relation to our constitutions now when we talk about our constitutions we do expect of course that our constitutions would provide for civil and political rights they would protect minorities including sexual minorities and indigenous communities it will also ensure or should ensure the rights of the political opposition and society to operate freely freedom of the press in all its formats credible elections along the lines provided by international public law and best practice citizenship, the independence of judiciary a clear remedy to guard against the potential of drawbacks or so called democratic decision making especially acute in the lopsided caribbean parliaments that we have today and so when we talk about the judiciary in particular we must be concerned about safeguarding the tenure of judges so that no judge unless he or she violates the terms and conditions of service can be dismissed we must talk about how we make if it is desirable our civil service neutral if not then let's say what it is because we are increasingly witnessing in the region the politicization of the service the tendency towards contracts and political not service contracts and so again it is in the media yesterday and today we have the while we insist on having the public servants et cetera and teachers being neutral and we have the irony of the suspension of teachers in Barbados and Saint Vincent agrandins notwithstanding precedents dating back to 1999 with the defratus case in Antigone Barbada and of course the Dean of Law Eddie Ventos who was a judge also advises me that he ruled on the issue as well so there's a lot of history in the Caribbean there are a lot of precedents in the Caribbean in relation to that and so it's a little bit surprising that we have these orders that define what public servants can and cannot do which clearly is sort of in breach of what some of the decisions that some of the decisions are coming out of the judicial branch the point I'm making is that we need to modernize and it's not a constitutional matter per se but we certainly need to modernize but one of the things that we need to do is to look very carefully at the independent neutral guardian institutions and I have a lot of concern about some of those in particular the elections and boundaries commissions where they exist, where it's a combined commission or in fact the elections commission and the boundaries commission we need to look at the process of prosecution the police, the judicial and legal service commission the institutions of financial accountability such as the audit department and respect to these neutral guardian institutions why are they so important they are important because these institutions are designed to protect people from interference and protect them sorry from interference from government and to ensure their impartial functioning and so we have to be concerned about the nature of appointment of those of the individuals who mandate and the extent of the political control that we see obtaining in relation to these institutions which are supposed to be guardian institutions now I also note that some of our second generation constitutions have gone a step further respect to the electoral system by substituting the first pass the post system for proportional representation and outside of the Caribbean they have also adopted the alternate vote system adopting reverse seats for minority groups among other things and as such a continuing preoccupation with both legal and political constitutionalism in relation to this trend we can readily see this in the Guinness constitution which replace the first pass the post for proportional representation and much later of course introduce the gender quota system there is a concern with gender and sex imbalances and I was going to say even though those who deliberately push the thesis of male marginalization I was going to say that but I'm not saying it the recognition that veto points in our constitutional order are inadequate and therefore there is need to broaden access and empower a new set of institutions that will bolster the constitutional order providing greater checks and balances which in my mind are seriously lacking in the Caribbean and we also need to take note of all of those agreements that we are signing on to that we are making that make commitments universal goals as exemplified for instance by the sustainable development goals the UN declaration of the rights of the child and that is just to name a few of course yes maybe this may caught up in the issue of legal constitutionalism constitutionalism as well but it's also political and I know that time is fast and I'm not halfway through as yet so these issues I'm saying must clearly enter into the calibration of all constitution builders and reformers to do otherwise is to miss an opportunity to modernize and to ensure that our constitution fit for purpose in this 21st century not merely fit the purpose of a political class and so I am just in terms of reform commissions I think it really need to be less conservative I'm not suggesting that become more militant but certainly less conservative and take a lot of those issues which for some reason some of those constitutional reform commissions eskew now I want to just simply sketch the constitutional reform today and in my mind when I look at the constitutional reform process the Caribbean today the members of constitutional reform commissions today today and today, more recently to my mind, especially when you look very carefully and I'm talking about those for instance that have produced reports when you look at the reports which have been produced but in some parts of the Caribbean for example the Senutia report which I spoke about a while ago it would appear to me that members of the CRC about the possibility for reform and as a matter of fact as a member of that commission absolutely nothing was left of the table nothing, there was no political interference we spoke, we deliberated and we spoke with people we went a length and breadth of Senutia and then we worked out and made recommendations we made 190 recommendations not one of those recommendations have been acted upon by the government I would say the process today is extremely fluid I would say too that the goals of the constitutional reform process today appear to be modest than the goals say some 20 years ago and even worse than being just modest to my mind the goal tend to be very timid and what accounts for that we have to be able to explain that to my mind there are already 3 things one, too much control of the process itself by the political executive and the reluctance to push the boundaries of reform and we see that very easily from the debate on the reports where such debates have taken place it doesn't seem to be an appetite of meaningful change, for meaningful change both on the part of the political elite and some members and members of some reform commissions themselves and I suspect that has to do with the experience of failed or stalled processes or the control of the political, all of them the control of the political elite of the process there is also the second reason why as I have been intimating all along that there is failure is because of the requirement of a high threshold that is a super majority or hyper majority ranism for changing sections of the constitution what Richard Albert refers to as the constitutional handcuffs and thirdly we have and I don't think anybody can deny that we have highly polarized systems and this is because of the nature of party systems and the political culture of the region which is extremely tribalistic we split people into two camps them against us which itself cannot be divorced from the issue of the constitutional handcuffs so constitutional reformers both those who initiate and those who build in it must confront what is at stake and because if we don't do so the end result will prove to be the process must comprehensively address both large and small issues of socio-economic, political and environmental concerns and must be open to the opinions of all otherwise constitutional reformers run the risk as I said before of being accused of producing a constitution that lacks legitimacy but equally we must confront notwithstanding anything I will go on to say in relation to killer recommendations the constitutional texts with respect to the restrictions that may exist that may preclude any parliament from totally transforming the political order and therefore but I'm saying we cannot continue to be scrupulous observers and retainers of the present governance arrangements when reform is in fact required we cannot ring fence the system because that is not in the best interest of the nation so to my mind and this is a view shared also by the former chair Belize political reform commission who argued that most of the post independence key governance issues have not been substantially addressed and you identify seven of them and you say this is relevant even for today the powers of the executive branch they don't want to hear about that including the discretionary powers of ministers and the prime ministers lack of meaningful oversight and checks on the executive by the legislature this is what Saint Lucia was concerned about the electoral system widespread political corruption and vote buying I think that bears repeating and there are deniers of this but they are widespread political corruption and vote buying some countries the scandals come out some countries there's too much silence in the scandals stay in lack of regulation of campaign financing and political parties lack of effective participation of people and alternative groups and political system which is the basic thing so I'm going to keep this I'm very simple and I'm going to focus on I'm going to just move very quickly but one of the people I wanted to make reference to in relation to what is important about our system is that it's a very flexible political system and you have Walter Balgerd in Farke Green that the system is very superior because the system is very elastic unlike you know the other political system which is a presidential which is very in Farke region and so what he concluded is that the beauty of the English system and therefore our system in a sense is what he calls the fact that there is elasticity on the other hand in the American political system you have you don't have that elasticity and you don't have the ability what he calls the revolutionary reserve which you can get in the Westminster but unfortunately we have too many abuses in the Caribbean and even if the system is good because it is a very flexible political system we have too many abuses and we see it very daily we see it daily and especially during election times we see it on display and we have to deliver this so I want to deliver one major issue for instance and that is the no confidence motion in the Caribbean and how it is being used and I was going to cherry pick and so one of the things I'm going for a low hanging fruit in the Caribbean and so one of the things we need to do is to engage in some targeted interventions because I believe that is really demanded and if we look at the no confidence motion it is something that we could see very readily now I would say to you that one of the guiding principles and conventions of Westminster system is that the executive is formed by and is ultimately accountable to the administrative branch of government and that is very clear in relation to what our constitution says you can see Saint Vincent you can see Saint Lucia for instance about the need of the government to be accountable to the parliament that is very clear in Guyana we see a similar situation as well but all across the Caribbean we have had problems and one of the things I'm concerned about we had political developments taking place in Saint Kitts Nivis which would have brought well firstly around 2012 or before we had problems with the Denzel Douglas administration and of course there were shenanigans that went on for about 2 years and finally the courts ruled that the constitution provides for a motion of no confidence and therefore a motion of no confidence must be held and therefore dissolve the parliament to avoid a no confidence motion you can't also provoke the parliament to avoid a no confidence motion I say you can't but that is clearly what has been taking place so the government well the opposition took the Denzel Douglas what they had done before the shenanigans to court and Timothy Harris argued that democracy was a threat under the previous administration and we have to keep the faith with the people of Saint Kitts Nivis and to ensure that never again the creeping dictatorship of the past oppressive dictatorship led by Douglas regime can happen again that is what he said and that is of course around 2012 and so forth and the other fast trap, we have Timothy Harris in office so now as he went into office he did the right thing he pirated the bill under no confidence motion in 2019 and the bill was very very clear it simply said that a motion of no confidence motion must be held within 20 days after the motion had been submitted now of course the situation where Timothy Harris is challenged but within his own political party and rather than allow the no confidence motion to be heard Timothy Harris did not just prorog the parliament but what he did was in fact to dissolve the parliament to totally frustrate the right of the opposition to be heard and we've seen that also in Grenada and also in Guyana more recently and we know that that took that went all the way to the to the Caribbean Court of Justice so my problem there's a big problem and we have to fix it and we cannot I think depend on the judgment of men the problem for our constitution is the lack of certainty and of course the other problem is that men and I mean it loosely we failed to deal decisive with such matters during this constitutional moment offered to us by revisiting our constitution and we know what triggered that I'm arguing that we'll continue to face the potential threat of the supporting government so we need clear constitutional rules that will guide parliamentarians with a blueprint of what can be done and what cannot be done a sort of to borrow a phrase from Elliot and Bulma and that's the continuity of action which is not there unlike the British on which our system is modeled we experience no constraints of history in such matters and we have become increasingly emboldened by an electoral system that is not producing the kind of democratic outcomes and representation of interest that are desirable nor for that matter is the hyper partisanship on daily display across the region manifest this thing in categorical and I say categorical and they know it all when they call in the popular talk show programs calling programs and daily display across the region they speak in categorical statements on the media outlets about the contribution or lack thereof of losing political parties to the socio economic environment cultural and political development of the states so reforms such as this will certainly augment the limited but necessary checks on the political elite that would stay the inclination towards dictatorial behavior and I do have concerns because in some of the Caribbean countries we have reference to when no confidence motion in the government we have reference to no confidence motion in of course the the speaker not sorry no confidence motion in the prime minister in Barbados there is no I scour the Barbados constitution because you know sometimes it takes things for granted so it must be in that constitution all our constitutions are similar but I scour the Barbados constitution and surprisingly there is no reference in the Barbados constitution about a no confidence motion in the government so that is why I understand now why prime minister did say when there is a no confidence motion in the prime minister then that a oh ho so you are no confidence in me but a no confidence motion in me because I am the government and it's not in the constitution we have to make sure that we put that in the constitution where it does not in fact exist and the reason I say so is because we cannot leave that to politicians I think politicians are very capricious and other things which I don't have time to speak about right now and somebody here might be happy that I don't have time to speak about him because I realize that I am running out of time so I just want to say that we need to also pay attention to the political opposition and that's one of my beef I really have a problem with that the constitution unfortunately Westminster is founded on the existence of yes party government but it's also founded on the existence of an alternative in the form of the political opposition yet in the country of Caribbean it's an attempt to marginalize an already stricken parliamentary opposition when we need to enhance we need to fortify the opposition to provide what fusion of power and collective responsibility especially in the context where the executive lacks any distinction with the legislative branch of government and the upper chamber really does not exist as a bulwark against executive dominance it cannot provide that so we need an opposition when we get a situation in Caribbean the political parties want to wipe out the political opposition and we cannot afford to do so so we need to put things in the constitution that will ensure that the political opposition is in fact vibrant so what I'm saying is that when we look across the Caribbean we have a situation which I like to call the winner the winner bonus phenomenon we regularly experience that across the Caribbean and Bob this is a clear example about all the people voted for them etc people voted for them in the 30 constituency that does not mean that all barbarians didn't in fact the statistics even if the report is not yet ready from the 2022 elections it's a year already and it's not yet out but we know that at least 20 nearly 30% of the population voted for the political opposition but they excluded and there are all kinds of constitutional implications rising out of that and Stuart Wehr argued that what is necessary is for us to get away from this exclusive electoral system which cuts the opposition and citizens and we need a system in which the votes of all citizens do count equally what we have now is a system in which the votes of every citizen does not count for the same so they argued that we need a system and the political parties should be allocated seats in an elected assembly in proportion to the number of votes they have obtained in an election and the concept does not necessarily rule out geographical considerations which is what we have in the Caribbean but it does mean they cannot be made exclusive so the point I'm making is that we need to add an item and you could see that in relation to let me see if I get this right we could see that in relation to here look at this statistics in 1995 where you have the united workers party a newly formed political party getting 34.3% of the popular vote taking 11 of the 21 seats and therefore they're really an artificial majority because 11 of 21 as far as I'm concerned is an artificial majority well almost an artificial majority because combined you have almost an artificial majority combined you have the opposition taking 29.7 and 35.5 which is really you could see what I mean in Dominic and we have it also in Bahamas where you have in 2003 sorry in Bahamas the PLP getting 48.6% of the vote taking 18 of the seats which is 76.129 of the seats which is 76.1% of the seats yeah this is a problem if we have proportion representation which is what has been suggested it would be that distortion that we see in exaggeration which in fact certainly not take place in equipment so that's one of the things certainly I would like to put in the table and I reached, I'm getting to the end I want to talk about the basic structure doctrine and just I'm not going to go into it in the interest of time and then I'm going to just talk about getting to the end of my presentation so this brings me into the issue of the handcuffs which I've been making reference to and the lessons to be derived from many of our stalled and failed processes of constitutional reform in the Caribbean constitutional builders in the Caribbean must clearly work a narrow tightrope large because there are some limitations on constitutional reform set by the very constitutions that they aim to amend, reform, dismantle and dismember and reformism builders choose to engage the fact is that our constitution provide for a fairly high bar to change the entran sections of the constitution and thus often what is in dire need to reform is sheltered by the superior sanctity of entrenchment under the constitution and amendable therefore not by ordinary passage we all know that typically what we see is that you need as I said a super majority to in fact do so and that is not always in the offering and then secondly we know the other bar that you have to deal with just to move on quickly is that you need to secure in most jurisdictions outside of Barbados and of course Belis you need to secure the support of the people in a referendum but one of the issues that we certainly need to focus on is the issue of the opposition you can't exclude the opposition from a process and really expect the opposition to then turn wrong and support you to rally the troops at the end of the day to tell them to support even what in the opinion may be in the best interest of the country and the other issue that I need to be concerned about even before we get to the issue of the handcuff is that when we look at the Caribbean constitutions nowhere in the Caribbean constitutions do I see anything approximating what you see in the Indian constitution and other constitutions in the world and the basic we will talk about the basic structure doctrine nothing on our constitution is immutable there is nothing under our constitution that in fact cannot be changed but it appears to me based on the conversations across the region in terms of constitutional reform commission that there is this view that constitutional amendments ought not to touch upon the basic choices of constitutional design so we are wedded notwithstanding all the problems of Westminster we are wedded but the constitution does not say that we cannot change it at least in some of the jurisdictions you cannot change some things which are in fact basic and there are three types we just talk about the three types of this basic structure and when we talk about basic structure we're talking about the eternity clauses that is the character of the government clause that does not exist in the Caribbean that does not exist in the Caribbean at all for example with it the second is the spirit of principle clause and although people say it's difficult to concretize in some countries too the judiciary has actually struck down some amendments on the ground that the spirit of the principle has in fact been violated by particular amendment to the constitution and the third of course is the character of the country clause and in Barbados does not tend to elaborate that but it's of course with the charter but it's not just stickable for instance but it's not something that cannot be changed nothing in our constitution hint at the existence of any express material reservation or limits on constitutional amendments there is no principle or provision that speaks directly or an erinly to the legislature, the judiciary the executive and people's participation for elections all of these things are important yet even though in the express absence of that it would appear to me that parliamentary systems are apparently sacrosan and it appears that the system has entrenched itself in the minds of many Caribbean people and clearly the political elite so we don't have that eternity clause but we operate as if there's an eternity clause and that is why of course we have individuals who argue that eternity clause is unfortunately we don't have them but we act as if we have them eternity clauses are really operating like a dead hand of democracy because you're actually locking people into things that their forefathers would have in fact agreed to like the Americans in 1787 would have agreed to and in the 21st century it cannot be changed because of the existence of these eternity clauses so I'm saying we are blessed in relation to the lack of this but unfortunately our whole mentality suggest to us that perhaps we are stricken that perhaps these eternity clauses exist and I just want to tell you all reformers across the Caribbean that in fact it does not exist but of course we have these handcuffs that I spoke about a while ago and the main handcuff that we have that appears to bind us is the amendment culture the process of amending the constitution and insofar as that is concerned as I said before there are two things we need to take in consideration one is the the fact that you need to get parliamentary support and it's two thirds majority in most places as you can see here and of course you need in many Caribbean countries you also need to go to the referendum and that is in fact the problem so that when we look at our constitution the people that is the electorate have been given an elevated role to the play in the process as the constitution stipulates the way constitutional amendments in the constitutional amendments and China analysis citizens as I said before are the approvers or ratifiers of the draft constitution and that has not always worked out well for us based on the experience in the region so yes there is a need for a super majority but unfortunately that's sometimes for victim to the hyper partisanship that we see on daily display across the region and I want to end my discussion by just saying a few words on St Lucia the rejection of hybridity we worked hard in St Lucia we made as I said before 190 recommendations and I think it has to do and one of the main flagship recommendation was really about rejecting the notion that we have to maintain the parliamentary system because the people were asking for separation of power but we did not like the American political system so we opted for a hybrid system and all we were saying is that the people were saying the executive branch of government need to be separated any parliamentary system it is not so we decided okay well keep parliamentaryism but one of the things we should do is borrow somewhat from the French model and a mineral constitution to see that once you become a member of the executive branch of government you could not remain in the legislative branch of government we made legislation an executive function incompatible and when they finally debated it some five years later when they finally debated it some five years later in St Lucia I think genuinely speaking to a man that is what really killed the report and I take responsibility for that because I persuaded my colleagues to go in that direction and I just want to share with you one of the comments made by a parliamentarian and this is it can you imagine the recommendation 64 it speaks to there shall be a creation of a mixed model of government of a different kind of executive branch to that which currently prevails but here what is interesting Mr Speaker is the latter part of recommendation 64 if a minister is selected from parliament he, she must subsequently resign as a member of parliament to take up a post of minister you follow me Mr Speaker in other words let me read that again if a minister any one of you selected from parliament or the House of Assembly you shall no longer be members of parliament you shall resign to take up the post of minister Mr Speaker there is an old saying and I do not think it applies to what currently obtains but I do believe Mr Speaker having read that the old saying just springs to mind that fools run elections and wise men govern fools run elections and wise men govern so you foolish enough to go and face the electorate you foolish enough to take them away you foolish enough to do everything let them throw anything at you you are elected but if you want to be given a ministry you have to resign from parliament fools run elections, wise men govern now I do not know who was thinking what I was thinking that it was reasonable but clearly I don't know I must be a fool I don't know I really do not know who was thinking what Mr Speaker but this is in my mind I do not see the light of day and if we permit this recommendation to see the light of day Mr Speaker it would be reinventing the wheel the master day will be back I do not know where they are getting this from they will be back we cannot afford that in our democracy and there are others but what it seemed to me they were concerned about is separating the ministers the members of the parliament and they are only elected as members of parliament not as ministers a member of parliament a legislator to almost the same rank including given the same salary as a member of the executive but when you read all of them I couldn't share all of them with you when you read some of these comments it was so disheartening because there is a clear refusal to understand what it is you are trying to achieve but what it is they want to ensure is that they have access to ministries which they can use to then engage in patron clientelism and unfortunately actually what a lot some of my harshest statements I had to avoid and somebody in the crowd here would be very happy I didn't read them but nonetheless I didn't I do not have faith in the governing or political elite I have to say I have no faith in them broadly or narrowly however broadly or narrowly you may choose to define that political elite for the most part or the double standards the partisan driven public pronouncements and other often legal instruments I argue that in the absence of constitutional certainties we cannot be assured that the political class will do the right thing at all times and not resort resort to political expediency I believe that the political class is motivated primarily by self-interest and for that reason I prefer to speak of constitutional guarantees that will give routine attempts to manipulate the parliament for instance I prefer to leave little to the capriciousness of that class and up instead for certainties without engaging too many rigidities spelling out rights, obligations and clear processes must undergo the reforming or rebuilding of our constitutions equally important is the need to include the political opposition even though such inclusion is not undergirded by any intrinsic belief in bipartisanship because such bipartisanship is clearly a mechanism built into the constitution for securing constitutional change except where of course there is not a requirement for a referendum where there is an absence in the final outcome of our constitutional rebuilding efforts we are merely doomed to repeat the all too familiar path of abuses and dysfunctionalities however based on what I'm saying it must be part and parcel of the equation given the self interest that defines the political elite healthy suspicion of the political elite must be tempered by the awareness that the process of constitutional reform must be endorsed and ratified by that very political elite so that every reformer is duty born to keep in its line of sight is born to keep this in its line of sight that is the conundrum that every constitutional reformer must confront without necessarily capitulating in advance of the process itself to the narrow and sectorial interest of the political elite constitutional building must be a site for vigorous discussion of so many issues some very contentious some contested others readily relevant that it is impossible to comprehend a sterile, unpacked, unchallenged to this critical issue a constitution after all is a site for the establishment of a socio-economic and political order I know I took a little too long Dr. Roberts but I'm sorry that's just the nature of constitutional reform in the Caribbean and thank you very much I am so colleagues you see why she's a professor and also why she's also a mother hand because you could tell that this was a very part she had a lot to say but obviously she cannot say it all and the mother hand think after her classes and the students still have to follow her to get a little more of what she has to say so let's give her a very deserving round of applause and also the issue itself is a very complex one multifaceted, diverse and complex including economics, politics culture, whole set of questions and so it's a very difficult area to make to build a career on so we now come to the point where we have our feedback to our professor obviously you may have questions you may have issues you want to raise you will do it in a very orderly fashion we also have our audience online so we will try to balance our two audiences by giving so the usual procedure you have a question or comment our microphones are going around and make it short, make it something because there are many people who want to participate so the floor is now open I will try to do what I saw last week in another forum where one question was given to the home audience and one was given to the virtual audience I will try as much as possible to pursue that format Yes, Professor Winston Ma at the front Thank you very much for that lecture I really wish I had your passion about this topic and one of the things that came up in your presentation was the independence of some of the institutions and you had on the slide the central bank as one of the institutions that we could consider need to be independent from government interference and there are other institutions in any country that you can also flag but I was wondering in the context of small states if that impacts on the necessity for those type of institutions to be independent because in a small state like Barbados or Saint Lucia or Trinidad it's really difficult to see how you can have an independent monetary policy being a successful approach to economic development so I was thinking maybe you might want to take into account the small state perspective when looking at the independence of some of those economic institutions that you might have flagged Yes, thank you for that Professor Ma when we talk about institutional reform in the Caribbean when we talk about politics in the region one of the things that we take into consideration I think is best is that the small size of Caribbean states brings with it a lot of difficulties and among the difficulties of course critical mass now let me just say something again it's unfortunate that it is an economy that started the ball rolling because you know what my position is about anything I have to do with economies but I get your point about institutions like the central bank not only necessary the central bank the point I'm trying to make however is that there must be processes there must be options available to a state that will ensure as far as possible that will limit the interference in that institution of the political elite there are models out there for instance and I'm not going to go to the central bank I'm going to go to something else that I prefer and I'm more passionate about for instance Boundaries Commission and this is supposed to be a guarantor institution we keep talking about it is an independent commission the independent commission all across the Caribbean is really in question because the reality is that all of those election management bodies across the region are technically political or partisan institutions that is what they are, they are highly partisan institutions the chairman is chosen by the prime minister across the Caribbean and two of the other five members are chosen by the prime minister it's hardly likely you're going to get such a commission and I don't want to impute the integrity of anybody but what we have seen across the Caribbean is that it is unlikely that they're going to go against the wishes of the government and that is one of the problems with Guyana actually Ronnie Yearwood our colleague from law and myself have done some work on GCOM and part and parcel the problem and it was in full display it has been on display for some time but certainly was on display since 2020 and the cases are continuing part of the problem is the manner in which the nature of the composition of that body which makes it especially politically charged in a context yes of small state but secondly in the context of a bipartisan state when I say a bipartisan state I'm referring to the fact that when you look at Guyana we really have two literally hostile ethnic groups that are held bent on ensuring that their political party in fact wins an election at all cost and so there's a lot of abuses that take place in Guyana and I spoke to one political scientist who's an activist also in Guyana and we were talking about what took place in Guyana in 2020 and it's interesting for the problem with Guyana 2020 notwithstanding the so-called independent commission we have here is the fact that you're talking about the politics of oil and what is going to happen and unfortunately they waited too late to steal the election the election should have been stolen before the day of the election because that is what they typically do in Guyana part of the problem has to do with what happens at the level of GCOM itself I know what I'm saying but it is a reality so I'm agreeing with you that small states make it a little difficult for us to perhaps have the kinds of desirable level of independence but there are things that minimally we can put in place that I don't see happening across the Caribbean Thank you a question from cyberspace what in your mind Professor is the difference between legal constitutionalism and political constitutionalism can you give an example of each because you made references to them in your election I saw, thank you, that's a good question sorry, let me not be the dragon that they say I am de facto the matter is I think when I spoke about legal constitutionalism I think I made it very clear that some of the first generation the second generation constitutions were very concerned about ensuring that there was entrenchment rights were protected empowering a judicial branch or government that would be able to scrutinize what the executive and legislative branches were doing and I did indicate too that I was not going to get caught up in this because it is a huge debate in terms of political constitutionalism the tendencies to focus on things like the parliamentary institutions that we have in the Caribbean so they are very concerned about what is the nature of the executive branch of government who would constitute the executive branch of government what we did in nature of the legislative branch of government, these were the main concerns were some of the main concerns not the totality of the concerns of people who you can classify as political constitutionalism but that as I said before is really a bastard version of what the debate is all about you have Ron Bruce Hey, good evening everyone and I really want to congratulate you, Professor Barajel and what was a very insightful lecture and I'm not surprised being one of your students for many years so no surprises here at all so a constitution is a major tenant of a democracy and so far as that constitution is democratic and one of the major tenants of a democracy is really ensuring quality political outcomes for citizens you pointed towards the fact that many of our constitutions are inadequate in many areas particularly regarding for instance how they treat the oppositional parties but on the other end many aspects are also quite admirable they are not exactly dragons breathing fire on people but yet the quality of political outcomes that we see across the region are not exactly desirable and the question then becomes are we placing too much focus on constitutions and mechanisms that can ensure quality political outcomes and is the response to those mechanisms ensuring those quality political responses are outcomes of constitutional matter as well I'm sorry, yes, thank you but could you clarify exactly what you mean by particular policy outcomes so when we look at the economies of the region for instance when we look at let's say GDP when we look at things such as capital income so when we look at housing when we look at sanitation when we look at all the social issues that we would consider to be outcomes that are desirable for people so first it's not living in squalor poverty, good sanitation, good healthcare education laws, what have you quality political outcomes many of them are simply not there and the mechanisms that would ensure these outcomes whether it be parliament whether it be private sector whether it be schools what entities that exist that are responsible for ensuring the delivery of these outcomes, bureaucracy for instance they're simply not producing what we would consider quality political outcomes so are we placing too much focus on the constitutional aspect and too little focus on the mechanisms and is there a constitutional response to the fact that the mechanisms that we currently realise are not meeting the requirements to get those political outcomes that we desire okay that's a big question and I appreciate the question but I don't think that in considering the question that you can in fact avoid nonetheless a discussion of our constitution the reality is that the constitution are responsible for at least demarcate the relations that we have for example are elected into parliament the kind of processes that take place in Britain for instance we see that the British political system has evolved to a point where in terms of the parliament itself there are opportunities for the opposition to participate in a very meaningful way so that for instance one of the things they have instituted is the question time we know that and Devin you know that in relation to our own political system in the region one of the issues that we have to be concerned about is that we do not have this behavioural mechanisms we don't have the toll in Britain there are certain things they have done in order to close that gap now as I indicated sometimes before that when we look at the Caribbean what we see is a situation where we are perfect mimicmen we mimic very well what the British do in terms of their conventions one of the things that quite alarming to me for instance is the fact that for the monarchy for countries we still are constitutional monarchy one of the things we see every time there is an opening of parliament for instance is the ceremonial dragging of the don't smile, it does not mean to smile but is the ceremonial dragging of the speaker of the house and I said to myself do these ideas understand the history of the dragging of the speaker this has nothing to do with the history of the region so what I'm suggesting is that clearly we need to pay some attention to our constitution we need to pay attention to those things but I get your point that certainly when we look at socio-economic indicators in the region that some Caribbean governments at some points in time not all of them so we can't make broad statements about what is taking place in the Caribbean having fact not delivered for the people but sometimes they run quite frankly you can't only blame politicians it takes two hands to clap and unfortunately in some Caribbean countries we do have people for one reason or the other and some of them are very educated and I agree with what the former prime minister said recently in his speech they are very educated we think they are very independent and they are willing to speak out there is a culture in the Caribbean that I would like them to group think and not allow people to make comments that's why they call me a dragon to make comments that politicians for instance and those in authority would not always appreciate but what I would like to see is a more mobilized population a population that can actually divorce itself from its partisan politics that results in the kind of comments I hear people make to Christina for instance online that says in the history of the DLP no contribution to the socio-economic development but I mean where are you are you someplace on the moon if you're talking about the university of the west and if you're talking about the university education if you're talking about the Barbados Community College we know that that is associated for instance with the Barbados DLP yes we know the Democratic Labor Party have had some problems but that is not to suggest that they have made absolutely no contribution to the socio-economic development of the country that is what is going on and is a direct result of the kind of dependency that I think politicians have encouraged of our population I think it is also a consequence of the fact that we have a political system in which there is not adequate monitoring of say the finances political money that comes into the system which enables sometimes some political parties to win an election very handsomely for instance in one country in the Caribbean I'm not going to name the country but the political party contest an election and had 30 million dollars the population is by the way under 100,000 people yet they spend 30 million dollars but you spend 30 million dollars and what because your population is for an election your population is under 100,000 under 100,000 people and you talk about poverty you talk about the failure of housing policy you talk about the failure of education policy and so forth 30 million dollars I don't know where this coming from 30 million dollars and invest it in those sort of development so one of the things I would like to see clearly is a more civic minded population a population which is more willing to advocate for the things that they believe are necessary irrespective of their political position and I know an answer in your question in the way you like me to answer your question but that is how I'm going to answer it nonetheless and that's perfectly fine I think I will take two questions I'll combine two questions from online because they kind of short and asking similar type of question so the question is should we say fail if the people decide have you already failed so I think they refer to when you said some have failed and following that is what can you say you might want to see compromise on and what should we not compromise on in constitutional reforms so the first question is why do you use the word fail if people have actually voted against something and secondly in your own estimation say the things you think are fundamental but we should not compromise on and what you think we might compromise on okay I labeled some of the constitutional reform exercise in the Caribbean processes largely because the constitutional reform commissions would have met over an extended period of time they would have canvas the opinions of people all across the nation as well as overseas and they have made recommendations on the basis of those consultations as well as of course the views of the commissioners themselves and the assessment of what may be in the best interest of the country having done that sometimes if you look at the case of St. Lucia a process which began say January 2026 but January 2006 but really at the end of 2005 and did not submit a report until January 2011 so that is about 5 years and made 190 recommendations going to the fundamental rights we didn't say much about gender unfortunately we constrained in relation to that we made recommendations in relation to the prime minister and the deputy prime minister we made recommendations in relation to answering the second question one time as well we made recommendations in relation to what type of presidency we should have in St. Lucia we made recommendations in relation and the type of electoral system that we should have we spoke about the need to have a recall mechanism for instance and not a single one of those recommendations there was discussion as I said before in 2016 and I think everything else all the recommendations most of them the recommendations we made unfortunately fell victim to an over concern with the flagship and that is the hybrid political model and the government and the opposition as well who participated in the debate they did not support even if you had rejected this particular recommendation because unlike the constitution reform commission of Barbados of 2022 that commission was not asked to prepare a draft constitution we were merely asked to prepare a report and we made 190 recommendations some of them were low line it would have not made any fundamental difference not any fundamental difference operation of the system what would have done is to close some loopholes that we saw and improve the overall efficiency yet still nothing was taken and I cannot say therefore it did not get past the parliament it was killed in the parliament because of what I call this killer recommendation on the establishment of a hybrid political model so to me it failed in Saint Vincent's Grandinth you can say it failed in Grenada it failed but part of the problem in Grenada in Saint Vincent's Grandinth is a little more complex because they put the entire constitution I think to the people and that was the problem and the second thing too is that the opposition was very strategic in relation to what it did in the country at the beginning of the process it was involved in the discussions and so forth when it came to the point of going to people in a referendum it withdrew that critical support to the process and that's why I speak about hyper partisanship the other thing we have to recognize and it's very clear in relation to Grenada that you can talk about the people say how they say in terms of that referendum in Grenada there was a very low voter turnout of under 50% so the vast majority of the people stayed home they are a silent majority and we have to find ways to draw out that silent majority because what we are hearing from is a small group of people who are very vocal and they do not necessarily speak on the behalf of the population and so to that extent I'm saying because absolutely nothing was done in relation to the recommendations that were made those recommendations were actually coming from the people and it is now over 10 years then I have to say that it in fact failed that is how I defined failure in relation to what can be done I really think quite frankly but it seems to me that given the debate I heard in Saint Lucia that is not about to happen it is really a killer recommendation we can't the context of the Caribbean engage in any reform it seems to me on the basis of what I am seeing in the Senate report which will done in any way it seems to me the power of the prime minister except in so far as perhaps putting some strictures in relation to the use of the prerogation provision and secondly in relation to the dissolution of parliament now I'm saying that we are perfect we are not perfect we are less than perfect mimic many in the region we believe that we have mimicked very perfectly the British political system but the British have evolved beyond the Caribbean and one of the things we see in Britain and I think everybody here is very well aware of the fact Britain has been making some amendments to its constitution which is in fact designed to reduce the kind of abuses that we are seeing this play before in the last three months I don't even know the last prime minister I always forget her name because she was in power she was in office for 43 days yet still the government did not collapse that is an issue so we in the Caribbean believe that as long as this individual who many want an election in a particular constituency but happen to be the leader of the political party becomes the prime minister and in what text of the constitution says about a prime minister that the prime minister is in fact above everybody else and has the final say so can in fact dissolve the parliament mainly because the parliament no longer has confidence in your capacity to lead as a prime minister I don't think that we should equate confidence in a prime minister with confidence in government and that's why I'm saying that one of the things we need to do and to me it's easy done and we don't have to and I'm not even getting to the issue of fixed date of election which is a huge issue we can spend hours discussing fixed date of election but what I'm saying is that like the British perhaps what we could do since we are such perfect mimic me what we can do is to simply say that yes the parliament can be dissolved but it should only be dissolved prior to the five years so that is where you're going for the fixed date in a context where one people in the parliament are green to an early dissolution or secondly and absolutely only in the context where there's a successful no confidence in the government but that means we have to go back to ensuring that we really ground the no confidence motion so that when the opposition says that it wants to table a no confidence motion that they have a right to be heard and that the no confidence motion is in fact held which is not the region I do not see why in the region we should have elections taking place and I'm going to use the case of Saint Lucia not because I'm afraid of anybody I'm going to use the case of Saint Lucia and in 1987 we had two elections in a matter of three weeks in Saint Lucia and the only reason why we had two elections in Saint Lucia in a matter of three weeks is because the prime minister at the time did not like the majority that he had which was a slim working majority and he had a lot of negotiations through this trial for an expense because he wanted to increase his majority that's in 1987 three weeks apart in April of 1987 we had two elections and the end result of the second election was the same as the previous election 98 that's abuse and all I'm saying is that constitutionally we have to ensure that those abuses are in fact checked but I know we don't have hours here and that reminds me from our producer before we started that we have a two hour program so Professor Ventus has a question and I suspect after Professor Ventus we can take maybe one or two questions Professor Ventus Good evening everyone and thank you very much Professor Barajaz for your excellent lecture When you think of constitution reform the process is firstly engaged where persons come together representing various constituencies in every country then consult with the people but is it not an exercise in sovereignty where the reports of various amendments are put to the people and it's rejected isn't that not an exercise by the people to say that we like what we have we do not want these amendments so what do you say to that that kind of people in the Caribbean not see we don't want these changes and we like what we have so as I understand what's the difficulty with Caribbean people saying well we like it simply the point I'm making if you tell me that you put something to a referendum I said referendums are good I'm saying they're also bad so it's a risk and I I think I made it very clear this evening that the people must be essential to the process what I'm saying in relation to the referendums in the Caribbean is that they have fallen victim to partisan politics and that unfortunately we also do have a situation in the Caribbean in spite of the consultation as I just indicated the people who come out to speak are the the local minority I've spoken before about my experience for instance we've gone to communities so we have done what we're asked to do but when we go to some other communities to listen to some people sometimes there are 5 people in front of you and you in the community you've heard from those 5 people but you haven't heard from the majority when it comes time for the referendum 30% of the population turns out to vote I don't necessarily think that that is in fact the voice of the people you know the referendum yes has killed a process but it does not necessarily translate to the people making a decision that they didn't want that what we are seeing is some manipulation of the process what we are seeing is the people who feel alienated from the process for some reason or the other so that I agree with Gonzales but don't drag me into that Gonzales because it's a little more complex I agree with Gonzales but one of the things you have to do is to engage with your population not only have an educational program really bring them out inform them, educate them so they are learners of the process so at the end of the day they are in a position where quite apart from the party politics they can make a rational decision about what is in fact been put before them because ultimately what I have seen so far in many countries what have been put before the people in two programs, suggestions of people at the various town hall meetings and also in Saint Lucia we went to the workplace we went to the schools to talk to people but it didn't get to the point where we had a referendum so I get your point but I am saying nonetheless that the process of constitutional reform in the Caribbean where it has gone to a referendum does not and has failed or the referendum was defeated does not in fact suggest that that is the final say of the people or the majority of the people because it is less than 50% that have turned out in most of those referendum and I think also in the case of some referendum as if a special majority not just a simple majority I think we have had an excellent evening I think we can take one more question from Gerald and we will bring it to a close Gerald, right next to you Okay, but in the last one So after Gerald, there will be no more questions Thank you, good evening It is not a question, it is just a comment First of all, Cynthia, thanks for the invitation and I don't want to be one of those people who will be standing over you and saying they saw say no I am forever eternally grateful to you for when Tennyson talk about him, I just remembered Jamaica for the assistance and the guidance that you would have given me when I was here at UE and I know that there are many others who can echo those sentiments but I want to say to you when you can hear it so thank you very much I am not adored and we now invite another one of Professor Balaji student a postgraduate student to do the formal to give closing remarks Alexander Telet from Belize Dr. Tennyson Joseph, Masters of Ceremony Chief Justice Chief Justice of Barbatas Members of Cabinet Members of Judiciary Professor Clive Landis, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal Professor Cynthia Barajal Members of the Senate Members of the Campus Community Special Invited Guests Members of our Online Audience Members of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen As we bring this evening's professional lecture to a close the School for Graduate Studies and Research would like to give special thanks to Professor Clive Landis Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal for his Welcome Address Senator Dr. Christina Hines Head of Department of Government Sociology for giving the opening remarks Dr. Tennyson Joseph Senior Lecturer in Political Science for cheering tonight's event and moderating the question and answer segment Mr. Joel Devonish for providing the entertainment for tonight Mr. Rahim Agustin Joseph for that insightful introduction for our speaker the staff for ensuring that the event runs smoothly the audience both in person and online for taking the time out to attend tonight's professional lecture and last but certainly not least Professor Barajal our Professor of Constitutional Governance and Politics and our speaker tonight Thank you Professor Barajal for guiding us down the path of constitutional reform highlighting towards the process and difficulties it faces Thank you for your outstanding and continuous contribution a job exceptionally done and contributed immensely to academia and policy but it has left an imprint it has inspired and it has given us the knowledge to understand and looked at constitutional reform especially in the Caribbean context with a keen and analytical eye we have learned that it is of utmost importance that we are reminded of the necessity of having a home grown constitution one that reflects our political structure that are carefully crafted by our people our Caribbean minds which take into account ability to adapt to ever changing structure, history resources, the shocks we face our diversity, philosophy language, culture and traditions rules that are fair and that deepen our democracy and your lecture tonight has taught us that although these factors are necessary the constitutional reform process still has obstacles to overcome whether it be due to referendum processes or or sorry sorry referendum processes or the parliamentary process nevertheless we remain hopeful as we see many Caribbean states making steps towards constitutional reform such as beliefs it has truly been our pleasure to be here tonight and being a part of tonight's program thank you all again and good night