No resolution to this dispute

THE IRONICALLY named Dispute Resolution Commission (DRC) in 2000 recommended that Tobago should receive a minimum slice of the total budget pie of between 4.03 and 6.9 per cent.

Decades after that initial benchmark, the DRC itself is at the centre of the same dispute.

On Thursday Farley Augustine signalled his administration’s intention to sue the government for $166.4 million in alleged shortfalls in allocations.

The Chief Secretary also said governments had over the years chosen “to slavishly follow” the DRC’s benchmark – which was approved in Parliament after a two-day debate in October 2000 – without heeding the commission’s recommendation that the level of funding should be reviewed yearly.

For Mr Augustine, the matter is clear-cut. Tobago is being short-changed. It is owed money based on the old benchmark. And it is owed money because it deserves more. He hopes the court will agree. He believes, because of draft bills tabled by officials from time to time, there is a set perception that Tobago needs more.

The matter is not clear-cut. While politicians in both islands have in the past treated it as a political football and adopted overly-simplistic positions, the truth is, this complicated, nuanced issue will remain intractable in the foreseeable future unless and until the fundamental nature of the relationship between Trinidad and Tobago is addressed.

On the one hand, there is no other area of our country that is subject to fetters on government spending in relation to it. Technically, a government can spend as much money as it wants on Port of Spain while spending nothing on Toco. Why should Tobago, if it is an equal part of our union, be subject to limits to how much funding it can be allocated?

But another way of looking at the issue is not as one of Tobagonian disadvantage. On the contrary, Tobagonians are the only citizens who enjoy, as a matter of law, the privilege of a minimum level of investment.

Mr Augustine should be careful for what he wishes. He sees things in terms of money Trinidad owes Tobago.

However, some might say it is Tobago that owes Trinidad. There is a belief Tobago should be given only what it earns, more so if it wishes to be a truly autonomous entity.

And there’s the rub.

It is because there continues to be a lack of clarity over the nature of the relationship between our two islands that this issue is intractable.

In the House in 2000, Patrick Manning, then an opposition MP, noted the “continuing dispute” could be traced back to 1995. Unless there is some profound, illuminating change, all governments will continue to deal with it. The court might settle the law – but not the politics.