Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Reggie Dumas on Draft Constitution

"I've often written about what I perceived years ago as Mr Manning's relentless desire for overall control of the institutions of the state. The Clarke draft accelerates that process; if accepted, it would complete it. And remember, there are others to come after Mr Manning.

That is all I shall say on this matter for the time being, except this. Mr Manning has announced that a group will be "holding meetings all over the country with the citizenry (to) explain but not defend (the Clarke draft). Its main purpose would be to ascertain the voice of the people."

I would have much preferred the voice of the people to be ascertained beforehand and used as the main guide in the writing of a draft constitution. I can only hope now that the group is able to explain satisfactorily the many extraordinary proposals in the Clarke document, and to respond to Gary Aboud's concern: What checks? What balances?"

read article here

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