Tobago’s autonomy: Is 'better' good enough?

Even though I am a politician, I’ve tried to ensure that my weekly articles are not political, or at least not partisan. But this week I am forced to reverse that position. I must spend a little time talking about the Tobago Autonomy Bills, and present the case that many other Tobagonians have presented: the Bills in their current forms do not represent the wishes of Tobago, and therefore should be amended before officially sent back to the Parliament for debate and passage. I must also state publicly, that the PNM is the only political party on the island that admits the Bills are not perfect, but recommend that we accept them in their imperfect forms and push to have them amended in the future.

Why the PNM’s position is critically flawed

The Bills currently before the Parliament are The Constitution (Amendment) (Tobago Self-government) Bill 2021 and The Tobago Island Government Bill, 2021. The Constitution Amendment Bill is aimed at changing key clauses of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago, while the Island Government Bill will repeal and replace the current Tobago House of Assembly Act, 40 of 1996.

The Constitution of TT is the supreme law of the land. As a result, to amend the constitution requires what is known as a Special Majority, which requires three quarters of the Members of the House of Representatives (31 of the 41 Members of Parliament) and two thirds of the Senate (21 of the 31 Senators) to vote for the amendments to be accepted. As a result, the philosophy that we should allow the Bills with the current flaws to be passed, then fight for some future Parliament to make the changes is a risk that we should not take. We do not know which political party will rule the Parliament in the future. We do not know whether Tobago will be able to convince that party to bring the amendments to the Parliament for them to be debated. We do not know whether the Opposition will vote for those changes in the future. The fact is we simply do not know what the future holds, so we should not bank on correcting the wrongs in the future.

What are some of the recommended changes?

When the Prime Minister made his contribution about these Bills at the 21st Sitting of the House of Representatives on March 9, 2018, he indicated there were a number of issues “fundamental to an equitable relationship between the two islands in the sovereign democratic nation of Trinidad and Tobago.” These issues included:

(a) Equality of status between the two islands and a legislative framework reflecting such equality

(b) A federal type system of governance

(c) Definition and delineation of the boundaries of each island in accordance with the Constitution

(d) The responsibility of the Tobago Administration to formulate and implement policy on all matters affecting the lives of people resident in Tobago.

The critical clauses that must be amended all relate to these fundamental issues as outlined by Dr Keith Rowley:

1. Equality of status

The current draft of the Constitution Amendment Bill seeks to recognise equality of status between the two islands. The wording of the current draft, however, is as follows:

4. The preamble of the Constitution is amended by inserting after paragraph (c), the following paragraph: (ca) recognise-

(ii) the equality of status between the people of the island of Trinidad and the people of the island of Tobago, enabling them to access a fair share of the resources and opportunities available to all the people of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago;”

The Constitution already affords the people of TT the basic rights of freedom, equality, movement, thoughts and expression, etc. The many consultations in Tobago specifically asked for the constitution to be amended to express equality of status between the island of Trinidad and the island of Tobago. The fact that the crafters of this version have snuck in the words “the people of the island” has completely changed the meaning of the clause, and therefore does not grant Tobago the equality of status that it seeks.

2. Type of governance model

The people of Tobago have always stated that we are interested in a federal type of governance system, where Tobago will be managed by an internal system, Trinidad will be managed by an internal system, and Trinidad and Tobago will be managed by an overarching system. This is similar to what currently exists in the US. The people of Trinidad seem to be saying that they do not want an internal governance structure – which they have a right to decide for themselves.

It is important to note though, that all of the consultations with Tobagonians have included a wish to have more oversight over the executive council. The model that was proposed was a bicameral system, with a People’s House, consisting of individuals who represent different community groups, professional groups, and other upstanding citizens. The executive council would be required to come before the People’s House, present its ideas and get approval before executing large-scale projects. The concept of the People’s House was completely removed from the Bills.

It is also important to note that Tobago wanted mechanisms like the right to recall an assemblyman who is not working the way he/she should; the right to petition the Assembly to debate certain issues; and the right to have citizens raise questions and concerns in the Assembly. All of these mechanisms have been removed from the Bills.

3. Delineation of boundaries

The 2016 Bills that were sent to Trinidad included a delineation of Tobago to include a recognition of “Tobago waters.” The current drafts of the Bills defines Tobago as the following:

“Tobago” means the island of Tobago, Little Tobago, St Giles Island, Marble Island, Goat Island, Sisters Island and the internal and inland waters of Tobago.”

As you may have noticed, they have removed all mention of the waters around Tobago in this definition. This draft gives Tobago “administrative” powers over 11 nautical miles of sea around the island. This means that Tobago will be allowed to implement any policy that Trinidad makes for the waters around Tobago, but we will not be able to make any laws for what happens in the waters around Tobago. For example, if the Tobago House of Assembly wants to make a rule that prevents people from visiting the Buccoo Reef (because we want to give the reef a little time to regrow) it will have to go to Trinidad to make that law.

4. Formulate and implement policies for Tobago

Tobagonians have said that we should be able to formulate policies for all aspects of governance in Tobago. In other words, we want to be able to make laws for the good governance of Tobago. The draft that was laid in the Parliament in 2018 by Rowley sought to amend Section 53 of the Constitution to provide for the establishment of the Tobago Legislature, which will consist of the President, a House of Assembly and a People’s House and will have the power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Tobago with respect to all matters except the following, which the Central Government shall have exclusive law making powers:

The President; the Office of the Prime Minister; the Auditor General; Civil Aviation; Immigration; Foreign Affairs; the Judiciary; Meteorology; National Security (although internal policing shall be under the jurisdiction of the Tobago Government); the Ombudsman; and the Integrity Commission.

The current draft has completely moved away from this position, and seeks to list the items over which Tobago should have administrative powers in Schedule 1, in addition to identifying a list of items over which Tobago would have law making powers in Schedule 2.

It is important to note that the list of items for law making powers is very short, and does not include items like Fisheries; Air and Sea Transportation; Taxation; Town and Country Planning; Youth Development; Social Welfare; and a host of other critical areas of importance to Tobago. It is also important to note, that Trinidad would have the ability to reverse any law that Tobago makes, if it is not in agreement with the Trinidad law.

These critical issues are just a few that are cause for concern. This is why the PDP and every other political party (other than the PNM) has stated that we can’t allow the current draft to be passed in the Parliament. Tobago, don’t give up hope – we will continue to fight for what is best for Tobago.

Dr Faith BYisrael is a health educator, social scientist, public health specialist and politician.

Email address: Imani.Consulting.Tobago@gmail.com

Phone number: 494-8827

Facebook Page: @ImaniConsultingAndFoundationTobago