Democracia Activa

Director complains:
Rohandra John

Trinidad and Tobago’s civil society is still being left out of the decision-making process at the government level.
And even though the government had committed itself at the 2003 Summit of the Americas held in Quebec, to give due recognition to civil groups and to allow them to be part of State boards and committees which have an active role in making decisions that affect all citizens, the country was yet to see this become a reality.

Dr Kris Rampersad, director and board member of the Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women, made this point as she addressed a symposium in which the group presented the “Trinidad and Tobago country report on monitoring government’s performance in relation to commitments made at previous Summits of the Americas.” The symposium was hosted at the Professional Centre in Port of Spain recently.
Rampersad said the report which was compiled by the NGOs in collaboration with civil society groups and other organisations which are part of an active democracy network, found that government has done little or nothing to increase civil society participation and this raised the question of whether this country was really a democratic nation.
“Our participation is still very ad hoc and it generally happens after a lot of protest.”
Rampersad said the government in signing on to the Quebec Plan of Action had also agreed to ensure that citizens can access information freely and while it was commendable that they have implemented the Freedom of Information Act, citizens still experience problems accessing proper information from government due to bureaucracy and “a not so transparent political culture.”
She pointed that the government had also committed at the 2003 Summit to improve the performance of the local government but noted that corporations were still very ineffective especially since the levels of jurisdictions overlap “so nothing ever gets done and citizens continue to complain.”
Hazel Brown, coordinator of the Network of NGO’s, who also addressed participants at the symposium, said the government should be pressured to honour the commitments made at the previous Summit. She noted that this country was to host the fifth Summit of the Americas in 2009, and the government would only put itself in an “embarrassing situation” if it fails to do so.