Trinidad president warns against
'dictatorship' in standoff with PM
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) -- Saying he will not be party to an abuse
of
power that might lead to dictatorship, Trinidad's president addressed the
nation
Friday to stand firm in his refusal to appoint failed electoral candidates
to the
Cabinet.
"I've heard that what the prime minister wants he must get," President
A.N.R.
Robinson said in a televised speech. "That's where dictatorship arises,"
he
warned.
He said he will continue to refuse Prime Minister Basdeo Panday's demands
that
he appoint as Cabinet ministers seven failed candidates at December 11
general
elections narrowly won by Panday's United National Congress.
Racially charged elections in the country thriving on U.S. and European
investment in its petroleum and natural gas industry pitted black Trinidadians
descended from African slaves against descendants of East Indian indentured
laborers.
Tensions increased Friday after police received two telephone bomb threats
against the prime minister's residence and offices, both, they said, made
by the
same person.
A bomb squad found no explosives after evacuating both buildings, but police
have strengthened security in downtown Port-of-Spain, the Ministry of National
Security said.
That ministry currently is without a minister because of the stalemate.
The former British colony's 1.3 million people are about evenly divided
between
the two groups and Panday in 1995 became the first leader of Indian descent,
ending decades of political domination by Afro-Trinidadians.
Now it is in a constitutional crisis with the president, an Afro-Trinidadian
in a
largely ceremonial position, in a standoff with the prime minister, who
runs the
country.
While nothing in the constitution prevents the Cabinet appointments of
losers at
the polls, Robinson has said that to appoint failed electoral candidates
is an insult
to voters who refused their leadership.
Panday has said he can appoint whomever he pleases.
"If it's seven today, it can be 14 tomorrow," Robinson said in his address.
"Dictatorships have risen under the influence of the power of a single
man."
There was no immediate comment from Panday, who has just signed a
proclamation for Parliament to open January 12, and both men have said
they
will not change their minds.
Business leaders, concerned the impasse could hurt the economic boom fueled
largely by the business-minded Panday, said in a joint statement that the
president's delay is a matter of "grave concern."
And the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago has said that the constitution
states clearly that the president should act on the advice of the prime
minister.
But Robinson, whose actions cannot be challenged in court under the
constitution, says he should not have to act as a "rubber stamp."
Dr. Hamid Ghany, head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the
University of the West Indies, said the president was asserting executive
power.
"Effectively you have the beginnings of an executive presidency," he said.
"Future prime ministers beware."