Chief Sec urges Tobagonians: Keep fighting for autonomy

CHIEF SECRETARY Farley Augustine is urging Tobagonians to recommit to the fight for autonomy.

He made the appeal on December 16 while delivering a statement at the 36th plenary sitting in the Assembly Legislature, Scarborough.

The sitting coincided with Robinson Day, which is observed annually to commemorate the birth of late president and prime minister ANR Robinson, who famously moved a motion in the Parliament calling for self-determination in Tobago in 1977.

An island-wide clean-up also was held to mark the occasion.

The autonomy bills – Tobago Island Government Bill 2021 and the Constitution (Self-Government) Bill 2020 – were debated in Parliament on December 9.

The former was passed by a vote of 20-10 but the Constitution (Self-Government) Bill – the main piece of legislation – failed to get the required three-fourths majority for passage.

Augustine alluded to the failure of the bill in his statement, saying, “If ANR Robinson was alive today, he probably would not be surprised that the same culprits that denied the tenets of his 1977 motion and denied the recommendations of Seemungal in 1979 and denied his ambitious constitutional proposals in 1996 are the same ones that continue to deny Tobago their human right to self-determination.”

Late MP Lionel Seemungal tabled a motion for self-government in 1979.

Augustine urged Tobagonians to recommit to Robinson’s vision for self-government and the values and actions which underpinned his leadership.

“As we stand here today on the birthday of this great son of the soil, let us renew our commitment to his vision. Let us remember that bad habits, when unchecked, become seas of chaos, but good habits, when nurtured, can transform into rivers of progress and oceans of hope.”