Letter of Invitation to the Prime Minister

April 21, 2010

Hon. Mr. Patrick Manning
Prime Minister
Trinidad and Tobago
Balisier House,
1 Tranquility Street, Port of Spain.

Dear Mr. Manning,

We cordially invite you in your capacity as Prime Minister, Political Leader and Prime Ministerial candidate of the People’s National Movement to participate at the inaugural Trinidad and Tobago Prime Ministerial Debate, on Sunday 9 May, 2010, commencing at 8 p.m. The proposed venue is at the Learning Resource Centre at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. You will participate along
with the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Leader of the Opposition of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Political Leader of the United National Congress and the Prime Ministerial candidate of the coalition of opposition parties. The details of the debate have been attached.

This debate presents an opportunity to raise, in a non-partisan forum, the issues which will define the 2010 General Election, slated for May 24. The debate is structured to be unbiased and informative to the electorate, as the ultimate objective is to elicit strong and comprehensive answers to questions
which would have been sourced from a variety of channels, including the media, members of the public and youth. It will be a moderated debate, with little direct interaction between you and your opposing candidate, although provisions will obviously be made for answers and rebuttals of statements made
by your rival.

Televised political debates have long been a staple of democracies such as the United States of America and with the recent airing of the first Prime Ministerial debate for the United Kingdom’s May 6 poll, we believe that the time is ripe for Trinidad and Tobago to take a more mature political step by having our candidates address issues in a similar forum.

The selection of the debate date is deliberate in that it comes after the filing of Nomination Papers on May 3 and is set approximately 2 weeks prior to Election Day. The date and time, however, are flexible and can be moved to accommodate another mutually agreed upon date and time. In addition we are prepared to furnish both you and your rival candidate with a selection of questions that will be asked
on that night. This will allow you an adequate opportunity to prepare answers for some aspects of the debate.

Upon a positive response from either or both you and the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, we will then invite as many various media houses as possible to cover the event. This will allow both candidates to reach an audience of swing and undecided voters who are awaiting an opportunity such as this to be
informed of your ideas, philosophies and plans for office, somewhat unlike the audience that you will find on the campaign trail, most of whom may have already decided on their support for you. Please be advised also, that, in the event that the invitation is declined by one candidate and accepted by another, we propose to move ahead with a full 2 hour Q&A session with the accepting candidate.

We also take this opportunity to ask you and your campaign team to submit 5 questions to be posed directly to your rival candidate. Of these 5 questions, 2-3 will be selected to be asked on the night of the debate.

As a four-time elected Prime Minister of the Republic and the longest serving Member of Parliament in the history of Trinidad and Tobago you can appreciate that our politics have seen quite an evolution, with a more informed and educated electorate which now demands that certain issues be addressed in a more sober forum, rather than on the hustings of an election campaign. We hope that you view this
as an opportunity to elaborate on your achievements in office, as well as to elucidate on your proposed policies, ideas, goals and continued dreams for Trinidad and Tobago whether as stated in your Vision 2020 policy document or otherwise.

In the interest of transparency and non-partisanship, please find attached a copy of the letter of invitation sent to the Honorable Leader of the Opposition as well as a brief on the proposed structure of the debate. Please feel free to submit any concerns that you may have on the format or content of the debate, as the organisers are amenable to making changes, especially if it confirms your participation in
the debate. Any such changes will be forwarded to your rival candidate for her consideration, but ultimately, the organisers reserve the right to the structure and content of the debate, full and final details of which will be furnished at least 5 days prior to the slated date for the debate.

We thank you for your consideration and look forward to a positive response. In the interest of time, which as you are well aware, is running short, we ask for a response to this letter as soon as is possible and preferably within a week of the above date. Please contact us at the above email address or telephone numbers to advise us on your decision within that one week period.

Yours sincerely and on behalf of the Citizens of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago,

Dr. Ryan Ramoutar MBBS (UWI)
Mr. Kieran Khan BSc (UWI)
Mr. Dale Ramirez