On Monday September 20, 1976, one week after the PNM won the 1976 general election, Dr Eric Williams, in an address to a public meeting at the corner of Piccadilly Street and Town Council Street in Port-of-Spain, said, “The electorate has spoken. I am absolutely convinced that it will be wrong for any party or for the PNM to take a candidate who was defeated at the polls and put him in the Senate.” (Trinidad Guardian, September 21, 1976, lead story by Errol Pilgrim).
Thus was born the Williams doctrine on defeated candidates, in general, and defeated PNM candidates in particular, being appointed as senators after a general election.
This doctrine stood in stark contrast to the decision by the then leader of the opposition, Basdeo Panday, who led the new party called the ULF, to appoint a defeated candidate as a senator. His six senators consisted of Lennox Pierre, Dr George Sammy, George Weekes, Joseph Young, Dora Bridgemohan and Allan Alexander.
The latter, a prominent attorney, was the defeated ULF candidate in Point Fortin.
From that time onwards, all future PNM leaders, namely George Chambers and Patrick Manning, upheld the Williams doctrine that no defeated candidate would be appointed as a senator.
From that time onwards, the Panday doctrine was that defeated candidates were both eligible and appointable as senators.
Panday would repeat it in 1991 when he recommended Wade Mark (defeated UNC candidate in Barataria/San Juan) as an opposition senator and when he became prime minister in 1995, he proposed Hector Mc Lean (defeated UNC candidate in Tunapuna) as speaker of the House of Representatives. This was repeated after the 2000 general election with his nomination of seven defeated candidates as senators and also the election of Dr Rupert Griffith (defeated UNC candidate in Arima) as speaker.
To this end, there was a clear Panday doctrine that upheld the notion of defeated candidates as parliamentarians.
The Williams and Panday doctrines have co-existed as polar opposites between 1976 and 2015.
Two Fridays ago, the PNM abandoned the Williams doctrine with the appointment of Clarence Rambharat (defeated PNM candidate in Mayaro) and Avinash Singh (defeated PNM candidate in Caroni Central) when they were appointed Minister of Agriculture and Parliamentary Secretary in that ministry respectively.
Back in 2000-2001, then president ANR Robinson resisted Panday’s recommendations for seven defeated candidates to be appointed senators and ministers for 55 days. Indeed, on December 31, 2000, Robinson wrote to Panday, inter alia, to justify his refusal to act on his advice in making the appointments, as follows:
“To elevate candidates defeated in the general election to positions in the Government and even in the Cabinet, is not only a rebuff to the electorate, it may even be considered by some to be an act of revenge.”
When compared to the actions of Robinson in 2000-2001, there was no such resistance by President Carmona to the recommendations by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley with respect to the appointments of Rambharat and Singh in 2015.
The UNC did not miss the significance of this move and issued a press release last week acknowledging the shift by the PNM to adopt the UNC position (which is really encompassed in the Panday doctrine).
The emergence of the Williams doctrine in 1976 came out of a lobby for the appointment of Basil Pitt as a senator after he had been defeated in Tobago West by Dr Winston Murray of the DAC.
Indeed, the Sunday Guardian editorial of September 19, 1976, said, in part, as follows:
“We do not know what the policy of the Government is with regard to the nomination of valuable, but defeated candidates to the Senate, but if such a policy can accommodate the selection of Mr Pitt, we should certainly be among those who would support such a decision.” (Sunday Guardian, editorial, September 19, 1976).
Dr Williams delivered his address on the following evening in which he outlined his rejection of the idea of appointing defeated candidates as parliamentarians.
In its editorial on Wednesday, September 22, 1976, the Guardian changed its initial position and said, in part, as follows:
“Dr Williams has a point, a defeated candidate should not be brought to Parliament by the back door. But there is little that he or the President, who makes all appointments, could do as there is no bar to Mr Allan Alexander becoming an Opposition Senator. The President could try to dissuade the Opposition but the political wishes of the Opposition are paramount in this matter.” (Guardian, editorial, September 22, 1976).
The reality is that for the better part of 39 years, the Williams doctrine has prevailed for the PNM and the Panday doctrine has prevailed for the UNC.
Last week, the PNM made a highly significant philosophical shift to discard the Williams doctrine and adopt the Panday doctrine on defeated candidates being appointed as parliamentarians and members of the executive branch of government.
What was a raging firestorm 15 years ago passed without any adversity two Fridays ago. The Panday legacy surprisingly replaced the Williams doctrine based on a PNM decision.