Chief Sec­re­tary Orville Lon­don has ex­pressed his dis­ap­point­ment and alarm at the re­sponse by To­ba­go East MP and To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin to con­cerns about the re­fusal of the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship Gov­ern­ment to ac­cept nom­i­na­tions from the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly for rep­re­sen­ta­tion on state boards and com­mit­tees. He is al­so urg­ing her to take the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to con­vince her col­leagues that good gov­er­nance re­quired that they ho­n­our the as­sem­bly's rec­om­men­da­tions. The let­ter dat­ed De­cem­ber 14 fol­lows a sim­i­lar let­ter Lon­don wrote Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar last week on the sub­ject. Lon­don told the To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter: "Min­is­ter, you are re­port­ed to have dis­missed the con­cerns by as­sert­ing that na­tion­als of Trinidad and To­ba­go were qual­i­fied to serve on boards and Cab­i­net de­cid­ed as it saw fit.

"I find it un­ac­cept­able that, as sit­ting par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tive for To­ba­go East, you could dis­miss the le­git­i­mate ex­pec­ta­tions of the as­sem­bly and the peo­ple of To­ba­go in this cav­a­lier man­ner," he said.

"Min­is­ter, there can be no plau­si­ble ar­gu­ment to sup­port the Gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion to dis­re­gard a 30-year-old arrange­ment and, in some cas­es, even ig­nore Cab­i­net de­ci­sions, in what some To­bag­o­ni­ans per­ceive as a de­lib­er­ate ef­fort to em­bar­rass or pun­ish the present To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly ad­min­is­tra­tion." Lon­don told the To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter that it was ev­i­dent that the THA's case was com­pelling and in the cir­cum­stances he be­lieved that all right-think­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans should strive to rem­e­dy this un­ten­able sit­u­a­tion.

"I am, there­fore, urg­ing you, as the lone To­ba­go rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the Cab­i­net of Trinidad and To­ba­go, to take the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to con­vince your col­leagues that good gov­er­nance ded­i­cates that they must ho­n­our the As­sem­bly's rec­om­men­da­tions," he said. "I am al­so urg­ing you to ad­vise them that they should de­sist from pur­su­ing ini­tia­tives which could sig­nal to the To­ba­go pub­lic a lack of re­spect for the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and by ex­ten­sion, a cal­lous dis­re­gard for the rights, the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and the dig­ni­ty of the peo­ple of To­ba­go."