Democracy means the rule of the people but how many times have we been consulted about anything. We have had successive administrations do what they please without the most basic form of consultation far less than a nationwide popular vote when it comes to major decisions.

Within recent times the people of Panama went to the polls to vote on a Referendum to decide whether or not the Panama Canal should be widened. The project would cost an estimated $5 billion US dollars and the Government wanted the approval from the people.

The people of Curacao recently went to a referendum to decide whether or not they should seek to be more autonomous from the Netherlands.

The people of Cayman held a Referendum recently to decide on a new Constitution.

The people of Venezuela recently voted ‘YES’ in a referendum giving their President an additional term in office.

We in Trinidad and Tobago must be in a position to determine our future. No longer can we allow a hand full of people to make those decisions for us. After Independence in 1962 we should have taken the decision then and there but it is not too late.

The growth of political parties increase the danger ‘ that representatives of the people may, consciously or unconsciously, place the interest of their party above the welfare of the nation’ [ Dicey 1912,91].

Is this something we see happening here in Trinidad and Tobago? And if so what are we going to do about it? One way is to have the Process of Referendum and the Power of Recall.