Trinidad and Tobago is about to see a new Draft Constitution put forward by the government. We keep being told that citizens will be consulted, when in fact the Draft has already been written without any wide spread consultation beforehand.

The current Draft has no provision for REFERENDUM, RE-CALL, or PETITION, which means that once again, citizens will be handed a Constitution to be approved by Parliament with no real involvement by the citizens themselves.

We must always remember that the Constitution is a contract between the People and the State; therefore, we the People must have final approval for the Constitution by means of a popular vote, i.e.: the Referendum.

Copies of the draft Constitution are available from the Government Printery.

There are a number of changes YESTT would like to see made to the Constitution and the way in which many of our citizens view the Constitution.

The first line in the preamble should read ‘ THE PEOPLE ARE SOVEREIGN’. This means that we the people come first. Not the President, not the Parliament, not the Cabinet.

Besides the fact that there has been little or no consultation with the people surely the time has come when our Contract with the State – The Constitution, should be in a language that all of us can understand. It should also be structured in a way that ALL citizens can read and understand it

YESTT would like to see the Constitution being part of our schools curriculum.  It should be taught in secondary schools.

A permanent Constitutional Court should be set up to deal with matters relating to the Constitution and the rights of the citizen. All citizens must have access to the Court and can do so without having to secure the services of counsel.

Under the Chapter ‘ The Recognition and Protection of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms’ there is no mention of one of the most basic rights – the Right to have access to a regular supply of Potable Water. If that one right was enshrined in our Contract with the State how would that affect our citizens quality of life?