Franklyn defends Independent senators

Former opposition senator Caswell Franklyn has charged that Independent senators have been wrongfully blamed for Government’s “mishandling” of the process of amending the Constitution, which included a bid to have an 18-year-old appointed to the Upper House.

While several Independent senators last week indicated they did not support the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2022, Franklyn argued their opposition was more to the process than the proposed amendments that would have reduced the age of eligibility to sit in Parliament from 21 to 18, and provide that when there is no Leader of the Opposition after a general election, the party with the second-highest number of votes select two opposition senators.

“They are being blamed for the Government’s mishandling of the situation,” Franklyn told Barbados TODAY. “They are being blamed for the Government’s lack of foresight to get the job that they want done.”

The senators had suggested that the amendments should be done during the year-long process of consultation on the new republic constitution promised by Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

A two-thirds majority vote was required to pass the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, but Leader of Government Business Senator Lisa Cummins adjourned debate when it was clear the support was lacking.

Several commentators have since pointed fingers at the Independent members of the Upper House for blocking the changes that would have allowed 18-year-old law student Khaleel Kothdiwala, proposed by Mottley as a Government senator, to take that seat in the Upper House.

But Franklyn said critics have misrepresented what actually took place in the Senate.

“The Independent senators never cast a vote. Stop blaming the Independent senators. They were concerned more about the process dealing with the amendments to the Constitution where the President Dame Sandra Mason would have been required to comply with directives from the party that cast the second-highest votes,” he argued.

“For instance, Senator Reverend John Rogers asked how it would work. Suppose some person is chosen by the President because the opposition party nominated two people and then somebody crosses the floor? How would that work? So, it would not have properly worked out.

“So rather than look at their shortcomings, they are trying to blame the Independent Senators for their ill-preparedness because these two amendments to the Constitution would not have worked out. The Government has carried on its normal behaviour of rushing to Parliament with things that they have not properly thought through to its logical conclusion and these two amendments were just part of that behaviour,” Franklyn added.

In a one-on-one with Barbados TODAY’s multimedia journalist Kareem Smith on Wednesday, Kothdiwala questioned the arguments of the Independent senators.

Prior to that, commenting on the lack of support for the constitutional amendments, political scientist Peter Wickham accused the independent senators of “denying young people a voice”. And former University of the West Indies (UWI) political science lecturer Dr George Belle said the independent senators should not be “an instrument of frustration of a majority Government”.

However, Franklyn took a different view.

“Dr Belle is saying that they are blocking the Government’s agenda and that is absolute nonsense. Absolute rubbish,” he insisted.

“He should understand, because he was a lecturer at university teaching political science, that our system of governance comes from the Westminster system in England. The Lords do not block the Government on anything in the Government’s manifesto. This amendment was not a manifesto pledge. They never put this to the people of the country. The first time we heard about it was when the Prime Minister announced that they were going to make this 18-year-old person a senator.

“But you must ask the question: Is this about an 18-year-old or was it about this 18-year-old that the Government is pushing?” Franklyn added.

Prominent attorney-at-law Gregory Nicholls, who previously served in the Senate from 2003 to 2008, was chosen to fill the seat that had been earmarked for Kothdiwala.

Franklyn questioned why a younger person was not selected.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb