Rowley on autonomy bills: Detractors hurting Tobago to spite PNM

THE Prime Minister said on Tuesday that certain Tobagonians were opposing new legislation for Tobago simply because they felt they were "doing the PNM something."

Dr Rowley spoke in the House of Representatives in support of a government motion to Adopt the Report of the JSC on the Constitution (Amendment) (Tobago Self-Government) Bill 2020.

He said, "There are some people who believe if this thing succeeds, it will not work for their position."

The PM addressed the positions of named detractors of the bill. Rowley said Tobago House of Assembly (THA) former chief secretary Hochoy Charles had served Tobago well but was "a politician opposed to the PNM." More so, Charles had won only six per cent of votes cast in his ward at the last THA election.

Rowley said he had once locked horns politically in Tobago with political commentator Dr Winford James, while economist Dr Vanus James had been on a PDP platform in the last THA election.

"Christlyn Moore was a UNC senator," he related.

Rowley alleged that the UNC's opposition to the bill was all about "trying to pander" to people in Tobago who believed they were in the ascendancy for control of Tobago.

He took issue with the PDP's viewpoints in the last THA election, such as saying Tobago should have its own judiciary. He said the PDP's call for Tobago to have its own immigration control would amount to its becoming a separate country to Trinidad. He rebutted calls for Tobago to control its own airspace by saying Trinidad and Tobago's Civil Aviation Authority now manages the airspace from here to Antigua and earns good revenue from doing this.

Rowley quoted PDP head Watson Duke as saying, "We must control every bloody thing. What I'm asking for is secession."

The PM said the bill proposed a Tobago arm of the Public Service Commission, and rejected the call by some voices for Tobago to have an entirely separate body.

He said Tobago has produced people who became attorney general, prime minister, president, Central Bank governor and medical doctors, yet someone will now suggest setting up a Tobago public service to confine young Tobagonians to the island.

Rowley said the JSC had recommended a "significant movement" in the budgetary allocation for Tobago from 4.03 to 6.8 per cent, although some voices wanted eight per cent.

On calls for the THA to be able to access loans, grants and concessions, he said this was already in the bill.

He said no separate rights were needed for Tobagonians as TT already has a bill of rights for all citizens  in the TT Constitution, such as the right to a habeas corpus and to access the Privy Council as the country's highest court. "Whatever the Constitution provides to anyone in Trinidad, it also provides to someone in Tobago. We are one nation under God."

Rowley said if Tobagonians in future wish for secession, they will have the right to self-determination.

He said that from a common-sense and efficiency standpoint, he saw no need for Tobago to have two parliaments as some people were advocating. He said the JSC had not recommended that.

Tobago's political leader will be designated a premier and will sit shoulder to shoulder with heads of government at meetings of the Commonwealth, Rowley said. He quipped that right now anyone abroad hearing about the Tobago House of Assembly chief secretary would probably think this post-holder was simply a functionary who carried someone else's briefcase.

After a walkout by UNC MPs in protest at a 60-minute extension to his speaking time, he said he hoped they would return to the chamber.

"I want to say to the UNC that they will come across better in the eyes of the people of TT if they do their duty and take a position of progress on these bills.

"It's not for me to provide leadership for the UNC; I do that for the PNM. But the country needs to be better served."

Advocating for the bill, Rowley said the years from 1980 (when the THA was established) to 1996 (when the THA Act  was passed) had brought great progress, self-respect and political maturity.

The House adjourned to Wednesday at 10.30 am.