PM: She served well …praises outgoing President Paula-Mae Weekes

Source: Trinidad Express
It was President Paula-Mae Weekes’ wish not to continue to serve as President, says Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

And, he said if she wanted to serve a second successive term, he would have willingly acceded to her desire to do so.

But that was not the case, he stressed in an interview with the Express in the final week of 2022.

“When I asked Justice Paula-Mae Weekes to take up the position as President (in 2018)…she made it quite clear then that there were two conditions—one, that she would not move into the official residence because of her dedication to her mother and (two) once her mother was still there as she is, that she (Weekes) would certainly not continue beyond one term. So that was an understanding that we had. So I don’t think some people should pat themselves on the back (thinking) that they were responsible for her not continuing,” added the Prime Minister, referring to detractors.

President Weekes’ tenure, which ends in a few weeks, was marked by a major controversy that led to her facing an unprecedented, though unsuccessful, impeachment motion brought by the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) as a result of the debacle involving the Police Service Commission (PolSC) in which there were allegations that she facilitated political interference in the Merit List for the Commissioner of Police.

The Prime Minister has maintained that these accusations are all untrue.

“I can tell you without fear of contradiction, notwithstanding the fact that persons made a career of trying to create an issue out of that in the way that they used assumptions to become fact by virtue of repetition.

People took their assumptions and said ‘this is what happened’…For example, the whole question of me giving the report (commissioned by the National Security Council on the Firearms User’s Licence issue) to the chairman (of the PolSC). That was not a presidential action.

I had a report to give to the chairman of a commission. I go to the President’s House (for the weekly consultations as required by Section 81 of the Constitution).

The chairman (of that commission) was also going there for a different reason. It just happened that we were both going there on the same day. We were not going to the same meeting. I said (to the chairman) that I have this thing (report) which I would like you to see and she said she is going to be there (at President’s House). All that happened was that I gave it (the report) to her there.

Now, one can make an argument that it should not have been given there and that it allowed people to implicate the President … I have even seen it written that the…President caused a meeting between the commission chairman and the Prime Minister.

Not true. The only thing that is correct was that the chairman of the commission who was going to the President’s House and the Prime Minister, who was also going to the President’s House, both for different meetings, crossed paths…The report was given to the chairman. But the President was not a part of it. You could say that once it happened at the President’s House, the President is implicated, but because you may think so, that does not make it true,” he said.

Firm deadlines in the law

Asked to describe President Weekes’ tenure, the Prime Minister said he believed that she gave good service.

“Firstly, she agreed to provide public service on her retirement (from the bench) and secondly, her experience as a former judge was very valuable to the Government and to the country. She interacted with the public as she saw it. Different people would interact differently. We have had different types of presidents—Sir Ellis had his own style, as did President (Noor) Hassanali and President (Arthur NR) Robinson etc.

She has done her part and I would like to thank her very sincerely for agreeing to serve and for providing us with the benefit of her experience and her decency. It is unfortunate that there were office-holders, many of whom have serious questions to answer in their own right, who took it upon themselves to be very disrespectful to the President and to use rumour to try to create crises- none of which fazed me because I knew that whatever I said to the country was irrefutable by the facts. Facts are one thing, but interpretations, and ‘I think so’ and ‘I feel so’ and ‘gossip’ are different things, and I stood with the facts.

President Weekes served quite well and I am sorry that she wasn’t able to continue,” he said.

Asked whether he had already settled on a person for the position of President, the Prime Minister said: “We have our ideas.

The Leader of Government Business has been told to make contact with the Chief Whip to put in place an arrangement for us to communicate with the Opposition. I will meet with the Opposition Leader later on.

They (the Opposition) might have their ideas and so do we. But in terms of who we finalise on, we would want to see what they think. But unfortunately in our conversations with our colleagues on the other side, they tend to only take the position of who to denigrate, who to say no to, and who to attack… We will wait to see if they have any names to suggest, we would want to hear what they have to say and we do that behind closed doors initially if those doors are allowed to remain closed. There are firm deadlines in law.

“It is interesting that when PNM is in office the expectations and the standards change. When the UNC was in the Government, they chose the President and that was that,” the Prime Minister said.