I would like to publicly recommend to the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) that it moves immediately to publish as a Green Paper the two bills on internal self-government for Tobago which were approved by the Assembly and sent to the Attorney General and the Prime Minister for deliberation by Cabinet. Needless to say, the bills have been totally ignored.
It is clear that the PP Government is intent on its established course of seeking at every turn to undermine the authority of the democratically elected and legally consti- tuted PNM administration in Tobago. It is also clear, unfortunately, that there are Tobagonians who are prepared to allow themselves to be used by the Government in its said endeavours.
In the circumstances, there seems to be little point in proclaiming that the central government Green Paper should be ignored, that it is not worth the paper it is printed on. That Green Paper is already in the public domain, Tobagonians are going to comment on it, the Government is going to proceed with these "consultations" and "deliberations" and it is going to publish its White Paper in due course, while studiously ignoring the THA and pretending as if the THA bills do not even exist.
The Assembly should therefore move purposefully to place the bills in the public domain as its own Green Paper and so give the people of Tobago the opportunity to compare the two Green Papers and, more importantly, to make comments on the THA bills. To do otherwise would be to cede centre stage to the central government Green Paper and to a PP Government that has continuously demonstrated that it has no compunction whatsoever in sidelining the PNM administration in Tobago.
The time for a "unified Tobago position" seems long gone. The political battle lines have clearly been drawn. And if the THA does not put its position on internal self-government squarely on the table, in the public domain, it runs the risk of getting trampled in the political dust. Please give the people of Tobago the opportunity to ajudicate on the two Green Papers.
JH Charles
Concordia, Tobago