James: Farley's Tobago autonomy motion 'a bad motion'

Economist Dr Vanus James has described a motion tabled by Chief Secretary Farley Augustine in the Assembly Legislature as “a bad motion.”

On May 22 a motion tabled by Augustine calling on the government, through the Attorney General and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, to work with the THA to expand its legislative and regulatory authority over key areas in the Fifth Schedule, and to draft the necessary legal amendments in collaboration with the THA’s legal team was passed.

The motion also asks the government to review all previous versions of the Tobago autonomy bills with input from the THA, identify areas of consensus and refinement, and reintroduce the bills in Parliament at the shortest possible period. Augustine is expected to send this motion and a supporting policy paper to the Prime Minister at the earliest opportunity.

Augustine and leader of Assembly business Zorisha Hackett met with the PM and leader of government business Barry Padarath for talks on May 28.

The Constitution Amendment (Tobago Self-Government) Bill 2020 came before Parliament on December 9, 2024, but it failed to acquire the three-fourths special majority needed to pass. Twenty-one MPs in the previous PNM government voted in favour while 16 opposition MPs from the UNC voted against. The bill required the support of 31 MPs to pass.

The current government, led by the UNC, has 26 MPs in the House of Representatives, the PNM opposition has 13 while the Tobago People’s Party has two MPs.

Speaking with Newsday on May 27, James said the motion as presented doesn’t speak properly to many things. He said he expected a lot of mistakes going forward as this is a bad approach to government.

“First of all, it doesn’t envisage a proper process through which Tobagonians can participate in shaping legislation to govern themselves with. No matter what you do, if you don’t do that, if you don’t set up a system through which we can participate, you would not be properly informed about what to do as government, so that’s a fundamental error embedded in this motion.”

This is not about what government wants, he said noting that first it is about what the people of Tobago wants. He said if one understands what the country is all about and what must be done as a country, any process set up in Tobago must be open to the participation of Trinidadians and the government in Trinidad.

“Trinidadians as individuals and Trinidadians as properly represented. So what you have to do is set up a process that is open to effective participation by everybody here as well as everybody in Trinidad. Tobago is half the country.”

He said: “This is not the way for the THA to function or for the government in Trinidad to function.”

He said even if such a bill is passed in Trinidad, "it will not give you anything really needed to govern effectively." He said Augustine must first start by engaging the public on how they want to be governed and that’s what the motion should say.

“Tobagonians are going to resist anything that comes of that.”

He said the motion should have that the way forward is to find a proper way to call the people of Tobago together in all their dispensations.

“Individuals must have a chance to bring whatever information they have to the process. The communities – you can’t develop Tobago without community development so the communities must be given an opportunity to make representation as to how they want to be governed and how they want the government to be set up. That prescription for a different approach means that you have to set up a process through which the communities get to come and tell you this is what we think. The village councils must be able to talk, the community leaders must be able to talk. all informed people must come, say what they think and explain themselves.”

He added: “You need a committee set up by THA that has representation from Farley and his team, has representation from the opposition, and also has representation from the other political parties in Tobago.”