(Trinidad Guardian) In a move that has left Tobagonians talking, President Christine Kangaloo surprisingly made a call for the autonomy Tobago has been clamouring for, saying the time had come for it to be done once and for all.
Efforts to secure autonomy for Tobago have been ongoing for years. The next attempt will take place in the current parliamentary session, with discussions on the Constitution Amendment Tobago Self Government Bill 2021 and the Tobago Island Government Bill 2021.
But on Wednesday, during her inaugural visit to Tobago, where she met with Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, Kangaloo said it is time to push legislation forward to give Tobago autonomy.
“I believe the time has come for there to be a new, and it is hoped, a final legislative push to secure autonomy for Tobago. That time is now and history will not absolve us if we, those who sit in this time in our nation’s history, do not do that which is required to secure Tobago autonomy once and for all,” the President said.
The bills are currently at the committee stage, and their passage requires a special majority in Parliament.
Although Kangaloo does not have the constitutional power to support the bill, she reminded parliamentarians of their duty to make the legislative intervention so that Tobagonians’ identity and individual aspirations would not only be respected but also supported.
Kangaloo lamented that the matter of autonomy for Tobago has been a burning issue for too long, and the Government has recognised its significance by saving the bills from the last parliamentary session and including them in the current one.
However, she noted that advocacy efforts need to intensify to ensure the necessary legislative interventions are made.
“I believe that at this juncture of our country’s history, our task, the signal importance of which has escaped neither the Chief Secretary nor me, is to fight to keep the question of autonomy on the national agenda, and to strain every muscle in us to struggle for its achievement and attention until it is advanced and achieved.
“Attempts to do so have been more insistent, more consistent and more feverish than in recent times. One has only to look at the recent history of these attempts to recognise that the rhetorical questions … ‘If not now, when, and if not us, who’ have already begun to be answered,” Kangaloo added.
The President stressed that failure to secure autonomy for Tobago would reflect poorly on the country’s history.
“That is why I said the time is now and that history will not absolve us if at this juncture of our country’s history, we fail to secure autonomy, for us to be equal by legislative means. Having arrived at where we are in this long and arduous struggle, what is now required is for us to push our representatives both in the assembly in Tobago and in the Parliament,” Kangaloo said.
“Today, I give you the assurance that I will continue to lend my own voice to the rising chorus of all who see better constitutional arrangements for the people of Tobago.”
President Kangaloo also said the renewed call for autonomy is not an attempt to break the union between Trinidad and Tobago. Rather, she insisted it is an effort to improve it.
“It is important to remember what it is that we are struggling for. We are not struggling to break each other down. And we are certainly not struggling to break our union apart. Quite the opposite. What we are struggling for is to make our union better. And in the end, what we must always remember is that what we are struggling for is a better Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.
As she confronted Tobagonians about the challenges affecting them, such as the sea and airbridge and economic development, she affirmed these matters are always at the forefront of her mind and heart.
“Because I have not mentioned these and other matters one by one does not mean that I do not care about them. I care about them all,” she said.
