Roberts-Thomas: THA must respect youth voice

The Tobago Youth Council (TYC) is calling on the Youth Affairs Secretary, Jomo Pitt, to explain and clarify why he has cancelled an invitation to its president for a UK Youth Parliament trip, appointing instead the Council’s vice-president.

TYC’s President, Latoyaa Roberts-Thomas, in an interview with Newsday Tobago, said that in February, the Council was contacted by Director of Youth, Praveen Bheem, about attending a study forum in the UK as a forerunner session to establishing a Youth Parliament in Tobago.

Roberts-Thomas said positive talks between TYC continued over five months concerning preparations for the trip, which was postponed from June to September. She reported, however, that there was a change to the talks when on August 2, Bheem requested a meeting.

“She informed me that as the President of the Council, I would no longer be attending that study trip on behalf of the Council and I would be replaced by the Vice President, Dr Kern Johnson. In follow up questions, trying to get clarification, trying to get justification, trying to get answers to as to what happened, how did the change come about… I was told that the decision was made, and I would not be representing the Council,” she said.

Roberts-Thomas said as disappointed as she was, she consulted with the TYC Executive and it was agreed that if funding was not being extended to her as President to attend the event, then no other executive member would be available to so attend.

“The Executive members of the Tobago Youth Council is calling on the THA to explain how this change was made as I remain the Council’s representative. Furthermore, neither the TYC Executive nor Dr Johnson were consulted prior on a proposed change of the representative and to date no reasons for a change were advanced,” Roberts-Thomas said.

She said that a letter was subsequently sent to the Pitt requesting clarification and justification on the issue.

“We did receive a very vague letter that the Division respects the position of the Council and that they look forward to future collaborations with us. It means that we are no longer a part of this Youth Parliament process,” she said.

“It is very highly strange that if there was an issue with my name as the President of the Council being placed there, even before it went to the Executive Council, some kind of feedback should have been made available to us. It is really unfortunate that for the development of the youths of Tobago that the THA is launching a Youth Parliament that is supposed to speak to democracy, speak to good governance, speak to encouraging good leaders of tomorrow on the island of Tobago and this is the way that our current leaders and examples are set,” she said.

Roberts-Thomas said the TYC was a non-governmental, non-political organisation seeking to promote the development of youth and look after their interests, and as such decisions it makes in their interests must be respected by the THA.

“For the Council … we stand for advocacy and representation of the young persons on the island and we would not under any circumstance have that undermined,” she said.

Roberts-Thomas said TYC continues to focus on its mandate, despite the position taken by the THA.

“We have been engaging our members and also talking to the Caribbean Regional Youth Council…We’re not going to do any petty fight with the THA… we are framing this situation into a broader regional discussion about the roles of the National Youth Council and youth participation in governance.

“We have been talking to our counterparts in the different Caribbean islands and we are going to launch a regional campaign that speaks to the way forward for Youth Councils. For us, the Youth Council is an independent organisation and if the THA asks us to be a part of a project, we do not believe that it is fair that they should dictate who is our representative. Even if they are paying for the person, there should be some kind of discussion with the organisation,” she said.

Pitt could not be reached for comment as all calls to his mobile went unanswered, while Director Bheem was said to be engaged in meetings all day last Thursday.