Committee chairman on new political party: 'It's about liberating Tobagonians'

AUTONOMY, and the liberation of Tobagonians.

This will be the mission of the new, people-centred political party when it is formally established, according to Ann Natasha Second, chair of the steering committee to facilitate the process.

Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and members of the THA executive met with supporters at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, on April 4, to decide on a name, logo and colour for the party.

But this did not materialise and a follow-up meeting has now been scheduled for April 17 to finalise details.

In an interview on the Tobago Updates morning show on April 5, Second said the meeting was titled: A Call To Order.

“The idea is for us to pursue autonomy and the absolute liberation of the Tobagonian – financial, emotional, and educational. We want to liberate people. We want people to be able to think critically, to solve our own problems.

“We want to be able to move towards autonomy. Therefore, our call to order is not just to persons who belong to the PDP at that point in time. It is to all of Tobago.

“So our mission is to go out there and encourage all persons to upgrade all of our skills, all of our ambitions and put them together to pursue autonomy.”

Second was a former general secretary of the Watson Duke-led Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP). She was among several executive members who resigned from the party, last December, after Duke’s public feud with Augustine.

Asked why the party was not unveiled officially, Second, who chaired the meeting, said it was important for them to get the details right.

She said while a name, colour and logo are essential elements of a party, its main focus will be on giving Tobagonians significant clout in its operations.

She said, “Democracy means that people will have to have a say so different groups of persons will have opportunity to go through and to suggest names and symbols. But we also had to lay a foundation for the party that is going to run with the name and the symbol. So all of the people came together and we discussed all of the different processes that got us to that point.

“There were additional suggestions, names and symbols. And so it was decided then by the convention, because they were legitimate, that based on the stage where we are at that, voices mattered.”

Second said a decision was later taken to have a smaller committee to look at the suggestions.

“So on April 17, we will have our decision on that day.”

Asked why supporters felt the need to establish a new party, she said Duke’s “constant abuse (of assemblymen and members) ended any kind of a possibility for reconciliation.

“It was so extreme. The ownership of the party was an individual and we wanted our own party, we want financial independence, the people want to own their party.”

Second added, “We are tired of having political leaders owning name, symbol. And when we are all united and we work hard and we achieve, they want to take their name and symbol.

“So we were tired of that and we wanted to have a ground-up, bottoms-up approach to creating our party.”

She said people 15 years and over can join the party.

“Our overall philosophy is that once you are 15 years and over you can bring something to the table, we want you to register to be part of this new entity that we are creating – our party. We want everybody to get involved. Our ultimate goal is the upliftment of every Tobagonian.”

Once established, Second said, the party’s first order of business will be to heal the hurts of the past.

“Elections are very difficult and challenging experiences and you have a lot of hurt left over from it. So one of the things that we have challenged ourselves to do immediately is to start the process of healing.

“So everyone can come, our doors are open, whatever political organisation you belonged to before. If you are a ‘nowarian,’ this is the space for you. Let us all work together towards achieving our autonomy and being ready for it.”