‘I’m PM of Trinidad AND Tobago’
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday def-ended her decision to “fully operationalise” the Office of the Prime Minister in Tobago, insisting this will not cause a rift between the PNM-controlled Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and the People’s Partnership controlled-Central Government.
Kamla on Tobago issue: The law is on my side
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says she’s “fully within the law” in her intent to re-operationalise a Prime Minister’s Office in Tobago.
Kamla, THA to be neighbours
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar will restore the old Office of the Prime Minister located at Jerningham Street in Scarborough, Tobago, in a building which currently houses offices of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).
Rowley: Shocking behaviour by some Tobago politicians
It is shocking that people in Tobago who should know better are encouraging the Prime Minister “for political expediency and their own personal advancement” in undermining the authority of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday.
Kamla: PM duties different
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday defended the need for a fully operational Office of the Prime Minister in Tobago which she says will function in a way the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) cannot.
London: THA wants more budget money
Hochoy: An attempt to colonise the island
This is how former THA chairman Hochoy Charles views the current moves by the Government in Tobago. The People’s Partnership Government on Friday moved to open a CEPEP office in Tobago, without the approval of the Tobago House of Assembly, a move which the THA intends to challenge in the courts.
Some wise words.
“A great deal of the tension has been caused by the PNM led THA which from the start of the PP’s term in office has not really sought to co-operate with central government but has preferred to be critical of its every proposal for Tobago. It was the THA PNM which fired the first shot in this war last year and it was also over funds for its unemployment projects, which it warned the PP not to decrease at a time when the PP was fighting to curtail massive government spending and waste. Additionally, Government has expressed concern over the management of Tobago’s CEPEP and oversight of financial affairs falls within its purview.
It is also reasonable and fair for the Prime Minister to have a functioning office in Tobago, for she has taken an oath to serve both Trinidad and Tobago. Autonomy has its benefits as well as its disadvantages. While locals do not have to depend on a central government for day to day administration, at times insularity begins to colour political discourse and policies tend to be a step behind political developments on the “mainland.” A national presence is crucial.
The principle problem is the definition of the political relationship between Trinidad and Tobago and how power is shared between a central government of Trinidad and Tobago and a local government like the THA. Under the most perfect of arrangements, there is always room for dispute. Who has the right to open the Scarborough Hospital? Should it be the Prime Minister after the PNM showed extreme inertia with regard to its completion? It was constructed with central government funds. Out of respect for Tobago’s local government, the hospital should be opened by both the THA Chief Secretary and the Prime Minister in a joint ceremony”.
The colonial genes are beginning to expand. Tobagonians need to stay on the alert. Don’t fall the sour milk treat and let them fulfill their aim of replacing the Colonial Master. Because you know what will be next after that.
So, Tman, sitting where yo are in Canada or whereer, you are now the spokesperson/interpreter for the idiotic statements OUR Prime Minister; Prime Minister of Cedros and Point Fortin, John John, Cascade, Charlotteville and Castara makes? Tobago was an add on to Trinidad for the conenience of the British Adminitraion, and it seems to work best, this marriage between unequals, when the people of Tobago are left to their own affairs. Tobago is like that area that broke off from the Indian Union under Ghandi, and bcame Pakistan, and like East Pakistan breaking away from West Pakistan and becoming Bangladesh. It is like East Timor.
Tobagonians are independent spirited people who can look at Guyana and Trinidad, and to some smaller extent, Grenada, and see who they do not want to be like- a mongrelized set of people constantly at war over ethnic issues.Most of them are full-blooded Africans and they do not take well to being bullied by mongrels.
Kamla may yet live to regret her bombastic attitude. The media will egg her on, and watch her make a fool of herself. If you have her ear, whisper a word of sense into it, please.Don’t take fire to people’ house, unles you want a firefight.
If Rowley was NOT a Tobagonin, he might have let the Intergity Commission get away with their nonsense, and railroad him into something unsavoury. Instead, he hung them by the balls. If he was Not a Tobagonian, he would not have stood up to Kamla, Chandredesh Sharma and the other liars over the Teacupgate affair.(Remember, een then, MAnning did not seem to hae his back)If Tobagonians were inclined to roll over and play dead, that situation where the fisherman was shot dead on the beach, by the security guard of an Ansa McAl company (2000, about Easter)owned beach resort that had dared to block off the public road, forbid access to the beach. The people went there, and if the government did not act in their favour, they were pefectly capable of tearing the hotel resort, and all therein, apart, brick by brick, limb by limb.The government bought out Ansa McAl.
There should be a sign at the airport and one at the seaport saying, “Trinis, whoever you are, don’t mess with Tobago. We doh eat nice.” The spirit of the Afrocentric Trini may have been broken long ago,by all layers of immigrants coming in, and getting tacit approval to help keep him down, but not in Tobago.”That’s a whole nother place.” Fair warning.
My personal view is that Tobago should have achieved independence from Trinidad some time ago. Tobago has been the recipient of billions of Trinidad oil dollars and they are shown to be so frightenly corrupt. An example is the Scarborough Hospital a virtual sink hole for Trinidad petro dollars. What has Trinidad gain from the Tobago relationship? Virtually nothing. The THA is nothing but a money grabbing, money negotiating monster fed generously by the PNM without any kind of accountability.
Having said that Tobago is still part of the unitary republic and deserves special attention from the Prime Minister. The THA for it’s part behave like they own Tobago, which is shamefully disgusting to say the least.
Dear Kamla,
Once again we Tobagonians are warning you stick to the constitutional agreements Tobago has internal State Government. Please respect the constitutional rights of the Island. Within the unitary State Tobago is a peculiar matter altogether is not San Fernando or Port of Spain. On this matter most Tobagonians do not want you to impose your version of Aryvarta in the disguise of party politics on the affairs of the Island. Please back off in the name of sanity and good sense. Discuss and negotiate. Don’t impose and boast. Thank-you. show more show less
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