Economist: Constitution Reform Committee did not address Tobago's proposals

ECONOMIST Dr Vanus James says the report compiled by the Cabinet-appointed National Advisory Committee on Constitution Reform does not properly address any of the issues raised by Tobagonians during his visits to communities over the past few months.

The committee, chaired by former speaker Barendra Sinanan, submitted its report on its public consultations to the Prime Minister on August 2.

The seven-member committee was formed in January to get feedback from the population about what they would like to see reflected in a revised Constitution. It held two consultations in Tobago.

A national public consultation to discuss the proposals is expected to be held later this year.

During a forum titled Community Echoes on August 28, at the Scarborough Library, Tobago, James discussed the proposals compiled during his meetings with community leaders and other stakeholders in some 12 communities across the island over the past eight months.

He told the audience, which included Tobago People’s Party chairman Ann Second and Innovative Democratic Alliance political leader Dr Denise Tsoifatt Angus: “When you read the report prepared by the Constitution Reform Committee appointed by Dr Rowley, none of the issues raised by the people of Tobago are addressed or are properly addressed. Not one.

“The communities in Tobago are now finding themselves in a position where we filed our report on what you said to them. They did not pay us any mind.”

James used the villages’ proposal for an elected Senate as an example.

“We made clear recommendations on the structure of government that would give effect to what you want. They came up with an arrangement to have a Senate that is part elected and part appointed.”

He believes this structure would be a continuation of the “executive government arrangement that we are working under today.

“As long as Tobago is operating in a government, in a system, in a national economy that is run by a dominant executive, we will never get to development.

“So we can’t only look after our own interests here. We have to say to our brothers and sisters in Trinidad, 'We want the national government to be reformed and we want the Tobago island government to be set up properly so that we, the people, can be properly empowered to look after ourselves, anchoring our development on what our communities want to do.' The result of all of that is that the steps that we took to get from the people what they want should long have been taken.”

On the proposals, James said the villages called for the right to concurrence.

“If you making a law down there that is going to affect Tobago, we need the right to look at it and say we agree or we don’t agree. Go and come again.”

He said he often discussed this issue with late retired head of the public service Reginald Dumas. James said Dumas had insisted Tobagonians should demand the right to concurrence.

He said there also must be a reformed THA.

“If you are going to have the right to petition, to tell the THA what you want as a community, the THA has to be organised for that right to be exercised.

“They are not talking about having the right to go find Farley (Augustine), get he number and call him. They want the THA to be set up differently.”

James said the villages proposed an executive council with nine members and another group of 18 elected members, not on the executive council, to represent the interests of Tobagonians.

“The 18 outside of the executive council are like in the British Parliament. What they are going to do is outvote the executive council on behalf of the people of Tobago when they think that is important. That is the key to government that is accountable to the people’s representatives.”

He said in Trinidad, “The Cabinet is the majority in the Parliament, and in the current THA, the executive council is the majority. So there is no room for the representatives of the people of Tobago to control this executive.”

James said Tobagonians must lay out a clear case about how they want themselves to be organised to allow for a clear voice and an opportunity to control what their government is doing on their account.

“They are all working for us. They are not our bosses, and when you are their bosses, you need ways to tell them what you want them to do. You have no such ways now.”