Suggestions to be sent to the advisory board regarding upcoming constitutional reforms for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Six distinct principles underpin my recommendations:
- Recognizing the computational nature of many systems and ensuring the quality of inputs is critical, as flawed inputs lead to flawed outputs. It's equally important to evaluate these systems' error-correction capabilities and their efficiency in yielding desirable outcomes.
- Social structures should be intentionally designed to reward positive behaviours and penalize negative ones.
- Systems must be designed for resilience, striving for antifragility over mere robustness.
- Decision-makers and public representatives should have a vested interest in the outcomes of their decisions. They should have "skin in the game."
- Information tends to be distributed and often loses its integrity when centralized entities try to consolidate it.
- Problem-solving over non-trivial domains benefits from collaborative rather than combative attitudes. Social systems should encourage the former and mitigate the latter.
- Balloting should proceed using the Ranked Pairs method, also called Tideman's method, instead of First-Past-The-Post. The Ranked Pairs method avoids many structural defiecincies of FPTP by:
- Reducing the spoiler effect
- More precisely representing the preferences of the electorate
- Reducing tactical and insincere voting
- Encouraging a poor diverse pool of candidates
- Embodying incentives to discourage mud-slinging and polarized behaviours
- General elections should held every four years on a fixed date (e.g. The third Monday in October).
- If the Prime Minister dissolves Parliament before it is constitutionally due or a vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister triggers a general election, then General Elections should be held within three months. However, the original fixed date remains
- Members of the Parliament should be eligible to serve ONLY in those constituencies in which they have been primarily resident for at least five continuous years.
- Members of Parliament should not be older than 65 years of age at the time of their election to serve in Parliament
- Members of the Parliament should serve for at most 12 years. If a member's 12th year falls in the middle of a government's term, they can serve for the remainder of said government's term but would be ineligible for re-election.
- The Senate should comprise: a. 13 members chosen by the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago b. nine members chosen by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago c. seven members chosen by the Opposition Leader d. ten members are chosen by Sortition
- The Sortition process should proceed as follows: a. A lottery process selects 10,000 income tax-paying citizens to invite to a second phase. b. If a selected citizen responds positively to the invitation within one month, then of those positive respondents, ten are chosen using a lottery system to serve as senators
- MPs are to hold town hall and public consultations on the afternoons of the last non-holiday Sunday of every month.
- Failure to conduct these consultations for three months during the term would constitute a dereliction of duty and trigger a by-election for the seat.
- An MP should directly recalled by collecting 10,000 signatures from residents of their constituency
- A member of Cabinet can be recalled by collecting 20,000 signatures from voting age citizens of Trinidad and Tobago
- Each Minister is to assemble an advisory board comprised of a. A shadow minister chosen by the Opposition b. no more than nine voluntary members from academia, industry, and civil society
- The advisory board should convene every month to provide feedback and advice. This feedback and advice is to be minuted and delivered to the Minister. This feedback and advice is to be public record
Day fines are a monetary penalty system based on the principle of proportionality, aiming to make fines equitable regardless of the offender's financial status. The fine amount is determined by the severity of the offense and the offender's daily income, ensuring that the financial impact is comparable for individuals with different income levels. This approach seeks to balance the punitive effect of fines and maintain fairness in the justice system. The constitution should make explicit provisions for the implementation of day fines