Al-Rawi: Tobago will make its own laws

TOBAGO will not only enjoy the lofty ideals of equality and self-determination, but also be able to pass its own laws, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi said on Monday.

The House of Representatives debated a government motion to adopt the Report of the Joint Select Committee on the Constitution (Amendment)(Tobago Self-Government) Bill 2020.

He said at present the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has no powers to legislate.

Voicing the JSC's recommendations, he said, "Tobago ought to have its own parliament, effectively. Tobago ought to have its own government, effectively.

"Tobago ought to have the capacity to make its own laws. The documents that the JSC approved to come before us are that Tobago makes its own laws."

He said to avoid any conflict of laws, the bill has an inconsistency construction clause to favour Tobago.

Al-Rawi said the bill will empower a Tobago legislature to help settle law title matters.

"This equals the solution to Tobago's land problems," he said. "Tobago can resolve its own land title problems for itself."

Lamenting the chopping death of a young man, allegedly over a land dispute, hours earlier in Tobago, he said, "There would have been no savagery and death if the boundaries were certain."

He said under the bill a THA minority leader would be treated like an opposition leader and a THA chief secretary like a prime minister, while two THA secretaries would each be akin to an attorney general and finance minister respectively. He asked, "Who stands in the way of giving Tobago love?"

The AG said Tobago can lead in TT by having fixed-date elections for the THA, as proposed in the bill.

"Tobago is deserving of a dispute resolution mechanism that can be treated with by the separation of powers principle, entrenched in our Constitution, so that if you can't get along with your prime minister you can go to the court. Doesn't that look, smell and sound like a betterment of position?"

He listed clauses in the bill now needing a special majority.

Al-Rawi said the report considered the percentage of the national budget allocated to Tobago, plus Tobago's ability to borrow.

"We say Tobago must be protected from capricious amendment by simple majority, and we wish to entrench that protection by using a three-quarters majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate."

He said the bill alters the Constitution, so Tobagonians can determine their own "economic, social and cultural development," but did not alter the unitary state of TT, such as by allowing secession nor having TT become a federated state.

Al-Rawi challenged the Opposition's call for more time for consultation, and said the Opposition's first speaker, Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, had not spoken on the bill's clauses but only on the JSC's minority report.

While Tobago had its first legislature 253 years ago, the AG said unfortunately 134 years ago it was designated a ward of Trinidad, but now the bill would remedy this.

Al-Rawi said the THA Act 1996 and the Constitution were inadequate for Tobago and its status must be entrenched in the Constitution beyond the effect of any simple majority bill.

"We've heard nothing from the UNC on that," he said, noting the bill needed a special majority.