The Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee of Par­lia­ment re­cent­ly laid its re­port on giv­ing To­ba­go greater au­ton­o­my in the form of two draft bills- Con­sti­tu­tion Amend­ment (To­ba­go Self Gov­ern­ment) Bill (2021) and To­ba­go Is­land Gov­ern­ment Bill (2021).

A doc­u­ment with To­ba­go's wish­es was sent to Cab­i­net in the form of a draft bill.

Here is what promi­nent To­bag­o­ni­ans had to say about the new drafts.

1) Tra­cy David­son- Ce­les­tine

Po­lit­i­cal Leader- To­ba­go Coun­cil- Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)

This is a his­toric mo­ment for To­ba­go and these bills rep­re­sent a sig­nif­i­cant step and a path­way for greater au­ton­o­my, equal­i­ty of sta­tus with Trinidad; a more im­pact­ful fi­nan­cial struc­ture for the is­land, and law­mak­ing pow­ers. I urge all To­bag­o­ni­ans and Po­lit­i­cal Par­ties to ral­ly around this last op­por­tu­ni­ty be­cause this is some­thing we can work with and build up­on.

2) Far­ley Au­gus­tine

Deputy leader- Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots

The bills are in­com­plete and are de­lib­er­ate­ly left that way. It is a great sit­u­a­tion­al irony that bills to grant To­ba­go the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and equal­i­ty of sta­tus with Trinidad, in so many ways, ig­nore the de­sires of the peo­ple of To­ba­go.

3) An­cil Den­nis- PNM's area rep­re­sen­ta­tive - Buc­coo/Mt. Pleas­ant

Chief Sec­re­tary

The bills, in their cur­rent form while not per­fect, are bet­ter than the first ver­sion and put To­ba­go in a po­si­tion of far greater re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and re­sources than we ever had. Au­ton­o­my is not a mat­ter of fi­nal­i­ty; it is a jour­ney.

4) Ho­choy Charles-

For­mer Chief Sec­re­tary and chair­man of One To­ba­go Voice

The en­tire bill must be re­ject­ed by the peo­ple of To­ba­go hav­ing re­gard to the con­ver­sa­tion we are hav­ing. There is no struc­ture in the bill.

5) Kwe­si Des Vi­gnes

For­mer Leader of As­sem­bly Busi­ness- PNM

As To­bag­o­ni­ans, we are at a cross­roads in the jour­ney to­wards greater au­ton­o­my. Fu­ture gen­er­a­tions will ei­ther look back at this mo­ment with great rev­er­ence as one in which we all came to­geth­er and made a ma­jor step for­ward or with cha­grin be­cause ego, po­lit­i­cal and per­son­al am­bi­tion were more im­por­tant than To­ba­go's progress.

6) Dr. Win­ford James

Po­lit­i­cal An­a­lyst

The bills are a re­ver­sal of many good au­ton­o­my ideas from 2016 and ear­li­er. I stand res­olute­ly against them.

7) Dr. Vanus James

Math­e­mat­i­cal Econ­o­mist

These Bills fail to de­liv­er to To­ba­go the promised equal­i­ty of sta­tus or self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and should be re­ject­ed on that ba­sis alone. How­ev­er, they al­so in­clude pro­vi­sions that will ef­fec­tive­ly make To­ba­go a colony of Trinidad and se­vere­ly dam­age the eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and de­vel­op­ment prospects of the coun­try.

8) Stan­ley Beard

For­mer THA Sec­re­tary and mem­ber of Un­aligned To­ba­go Politi­cians

The bills pre­sent­ed will not ad­vance the cause and needs of To­bag­o­ni­ans. To­bag­o­ni­ans must be re­spon­si­ble for chart­ing a course and the pace of de­vel­op­ment on the is­land.

9) Shirley Cooke

Vice pres­i­dent- Crown Point Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tion

The pro­vi­sions in the bills do not re­flect the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion and equal­i­ty of sta­tus as list­ed in the Amend­ed Con­sti­tu­tion. The pe­ri­od al­lowed for To­bag­o­ni­ans to ad­e­quate­ly pe­ruse and con­sult on the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee pro­pos­al is in­suf­fi­cient.

10) Deb­o­rah Moore- Mig­gins- For­mer as­sem­bly­man and on­ly in­de­pen­dent can­di­date to ever win a seat in the THA elec­tions

The bills are con­tra­dic­to­ry with­in them­selves and are in­con­sis­tent in sev­er­al re­spects with what To­ba­go peo­ple have ex­press­ly said what they want and should be with­drawn. They take us back to be­fore 1996 and are to­tal­ly un­ac­cept­able.