Bring draft rules, policies for debate

Minority Leader Watson Duke on Thursday described as a waste of time a motion to the House for the setting up a committee to draft guidelines to include differently abled persons in the workplace.

Duke agreed with the need for the committee but said it should have been set up, in consultation with the Minority Council, and policies formulated and brought to the House for debate.

He was contributing to a motion for the establishment of a stakeholders’ committee to prepare a position paper on how to include differently abled persons in the workplace in Tobago, and to formulate a framework for a register for differently abled persons on the island. The motion was brought by Health Secretary Dr Agatha Carrington.

Duke argued that legislation was needed to bring change in the treatment of the differently abled on the island.

“Disability is not only for those persons that lack vision, for those persons in wheelchairs or who have speech impediment, it goes beyond that. It will take more than a select committee or a group of people to improve the condition of the disabled persons in Tobago. What we need is legislative changes,” he said.

“We agree that there should be a committee to facilitate the needs of the differently abled people in Tobago, to ensure that they are properly provided for. We don’t need to come here for that, what should have been done is that we should have set up a committee outside.

“Come to us, you have my number, you call me for all different types of nonsense, you could have called me and said let’s have a discussion and we would have gladly come by you or you come by us, which is under James Park there by the tree, and we would have simply agreed with you and said let’s form the committee and end the talk.”

Duke added: “We don’t need to come here and waste precious Parliamentary time, precious Tobago House of Assembly time to debate this, this is a non-issue. Let’s form the committee, do it… but then to bring us into this Honourable House to waste good time is just not right.

“So, having formed the committee outside, the committee should have been given a mandate to draft rules or policies or guidelines, regulations and those were drafts which would have come to the Chief Secretary, he would have shared it with the Executive Council, and then shared it with the House to debate.”

Minority Councillor, Dr Faith BYisrael, agreeing with Duke that the motion was a waste of State’s time, submitted:

“We really do not need to debate this… I sincerely hope that those of us who are here speaking are not just doing this to provide lip service to people who really need us to function.”

BYisrael also declared too many committees were being set up with nothing being heard about them afterwards.

“I looked at this motion and thought, another committee. We have on too many occasions formed these grand committees with these instruments giving ceremonies, had beautiful pictures, placed them on Facebook and shortly after when you ask, ‘what has that committee done thus far,’ the answer is ‘I don’t know’ or possibly ‘nothing.’

Citing as an example the Special Select Committee which was set up at the 13th sitting of the Assembly to mobilise national support for the Constitutional Amendment (Tobago Self Government) Bill, BYisrael noted other committees as well, asking:

“I am wondering, what have those committees done? Where are they? Have those committees actually functioned the way they should have?

Minority member for Parlatuvier/ L‘Anse Fourmi/ Speyside, Farley Augustine in agreeing to the setting up of the committee, said Trinidad and Tobago was behind time when it comes to treating with the differently abled.

“When we compare ourselves to other jurisdictions, there are a lot more that we could have done and should have done prior to now. I join my colleagues in lending support to the motion, but I am saying, let this not go in the way of other policy papers, because this is a country where policy papers go to die, where they end up on a shelf and become dusty.

“Let us ensure that we follow up on this particular principle and policy that we are wishing to implement and let us ensure that we execute it.

“Let us ensure that there is public awareness as part of the entire dynamic because that is the only way we would get sufficient buy-in because we have to re-educate this island of Tobago. If we are honest, we have not always been kind to those who are differently abled and so part of this must include re-educating people of Tobago,” he said.