Mayor Reveals Why Politicians Like Him Cannot Represent the People

Mayor Reveals Why Politicians Like Him
Cannot Represent the People
 Yesterday, the Mayor of Port of Spain engaged in an extensive interview as the vendors returned to Charlotte Street, following the failure of the effort of his POS Corporation to coerce or fool the vendors to a new location, WITHOUT Consultation or Agreement.
It was incredulous to hear a man who is supposed to head a ‘representative’ body that is supposed to act on behalf of the burgesses (citizens) of the city, admit that literally he and his Corporation “took the opportunity” to force the vendors into a space ‘that was not prepared’.
Under the guise of conducting an improvement exercise on Charlotte Street, the Mayor admits the Corporation tried to put the vendors in the old Angostura location which was a decision of the Corporation made with NO input from or involvement of the vendors themselves.
He then bemoaned the fact that their plan was derailed because the vendors stood up against the high-handed and deceitful tactics of the Corporation.
But he would not bring himself to admit that it was the vendors’ resistance that blocked them.
Instead, he claimed the situation ‘became political’. How?
An opposition Senator, ‘either approached the vendors or they approached him’, the Mayor claims.
He went on and the “Senator issued a pre-action protocol letter” and the Corporation was forced to talk with the vendors for the first time.
How ludicrous, this failed representative is. NO Senator, as Senator, CAN issue Legal Pre-action Protocol Letters. That is what Lawyers do, not Politicians.
But, it suits the Mayor’s purpose to claim that legal representation on behalf of the vendors was made the situation ‘political’.
Imagine the appointed head of a political representative body describing legal action as ‘politics’.
The failure of the Mayor and Corporation to engage in consultation with citizens in making their unilateral decision which affects those citizens is politics.
It is the politics of a ‘representative’ system which DOES NOT represent the electors who are affected by its decisions.
It is the politics of a ‘representative’ systems that EXCLUDES the electors from any Role in the Decision-Making Process, and, RESTRICTS the role of the citizens to Nothing more than spending a few minutes in a voting booth.
 The Mayor, who is appointed by his political party and did not even face the polls, claims that he has a ‘mandate’ and a ‘programme’ to carry out in the 3-year term of the Corporation.
What mandate does he have from the burgesses of Port of Spain?
His programme is the programme of his party on behalf of special interests within the City.
It certainly a mandate or programme in which the vendors were even part of discussing. It is a mandate and programme unilaterally decided by his party and the Corporation in the interest of private interests, not the Public Interest.
The Mayor again exposed why politicians like him and a NON-Representative System like the current Parliamentary and Local Government arrangements Do NOT and CANNOT represent the People.
What is needed is to Re-organise the Governance arrangements so that the Electors and Citizens are Truly involved in the Decision-Making Process and Exercise Control over the Elected, not the other way around as it exists.
This ‘Representative’ system ONLY represents special interests and not the interest of the body politic as a whole.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
A Citizen Fighting For
The Democratic Renewal
of Our Society.
 
18 May 2018