Griffith: Impossible for Farley to be on National Security Council

Gary Griffith. - File photo

FORMER national security minister Gary Griffith says Tobago Chief Secretary Farley Augustine cannot be a member of the National Security Council (NSC) which is chaired by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

He made this comment in response to a call by Augustine that the THA chief secretary should be a member of the NSC, in relation to the installation of a US military radar at the Arthur NR International Airport at Crown Point last month. Augustine made this call during a Tobago People's Party (TPP) rally in Scarborough on December 1.

Griffith served as national security minister and national security adviser to the prime minister at different times during Persad-Bissessar's first administration (May 24, 2010- September 7, 2015). He is also a former captain in the TT Regiment and a former police commissioner.

He said, "The reason why it cannot happen is because Trinidad and Tobago...our parliamentary system and procedure...has been copied from the British system,"

In the UK, Griffith continued, the British started the concept of the NSC.

"That is to deal specifically to deal with matters pertaining to security of a country...for natural or man-made disasters...internally...from external aggression...dealing with matters of serious foreign policy...intelligence gathering and so forth."

Griffith said, "The NSC is a cabinet committee. That is the British model that we copied, word for word and we have utilised it."

He added the reason why the NSC has been used in the way it has by successive governments since independence in 1962 was out of recognition of the value of this entity to effectively treat with the UK's national security issues.

Griffith said, "We have a set policy that the NSC is a committee from cabinet. It is a cabinet committee which means for you to be in the NSC, you need to be a member of cabinet."

He added, "The chief secretary cannot be a member of cabinet because to be a member of cabinet, you have to be a member of parliament in the lower house and also be a government minister at the same time."

Griffith said junior government ministers, classified by the title "minister in the ministry of..." cannot sit in cabinet and therefore are ineligible to be NSC members.

He added even in large cabinets. only a select few cabinet ministers are NSC members.

The prime minister is always the NSC chair. The attorney general and the national security minister are also automatic NSC members. Other cabinet minister who may be NSC members include the finance, energy and foreign affairs ministers.

Griffith said, "The NSC...there is a great degree of confidentiality and secrecy. Even the rest of cabinet doesn't know about it."

He repeated, "With that, it makes it impossible for the chief secretary to be a member of the NSC."

Griffith said even if people are concerned about the radar's installation, this does not justify Augustine's inclusion in the NSC.

"Then if that's the case, then the minister of culture could now demand that she becomes (a members of the) NSC because Carnival, you have many security-related matters."

Griffith said similar arguments could be made by every other government minister for inclusion in the NSC on the grounds of security concerns affecting their respective portfolios.

He added, "What can happen is that if there is a specific incident or a specific point in the agenda, as it pertains to a specific matter such as praedial larceny, the minister of agriculture will be invited as a guest to attend that specific sitting of the NSC for that specific point in the agenda."

Griffith hinted Augustine could attend an NSC meeting if Persad-Bissessar agrees to allow him to do so, at a point in the meeting where it "pertains to Tobago's security...the radar...or whatever."

He said there is misconception by many people that the police commissioner and the TT Defence Force chief of staff are NSC members. Griffith added they are not.

"They are invited members who are invited by the NSC to give guidance and advice. They have no vote. They have no seat in the NSC."

No formal political coalition has existed between the UNC and TPP since the April 28 general election. TPP MPs Joel Sampson (Tobago West) and David Thomas (Tobago East) occupy seats next to UNC government backbenchers on the side of the parliament chamber reserved for the government.

Neither Sampson nor Thomas are government ministers (senior or junior) or parliamentary secretaries. Traditionally, parties in the House of Representatives which do not form the government sit in the benches across the aisle in the chamber from those occupied by government MPs. In the House, only the 13 opposition PNM MPs occupy that space.