Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine says the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of T&T (ORTT) giv­en to Ho­choy Charles is long over­due, but the re­al ho­n­our he want­ed was au­ton­o­my for To­ba­go and this is yet to be ful­filled.

Charles, To­ba­go’s first Chief Sec­re­tary, served from 1996 to 2001. He was known for his out­spo­ken style of lead­er­ship and his strong de­fence of To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my. He died on De­cem­ber 31, 2023, at the age of 77.

On Tues­day, he was named as one of three peo­ple to re­ceive the coun­try’s high­est award. Au­gus­tine point­ed out that Charles now joins for­mer pres­i­dent ANR Robin­son and cur­rent Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie as the on­ly To­bag­o­ni­ans to hold the na­tion’s top ho­n­our.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the Re­pub­lic Day Pa­rade in Rox­bor­ough yes­ter­day, Au­gus­tine said the award re­flects the scale of Charles’ work. “He will be giv­en the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go. This will make him per­haps the third To­bag­on­ian to re­ceive such an ho­n­our… we con­grat­u­late the fam­i­ly of Mr Charles, who ob­vi­ous­ly will re­ceive it in his ho­n­our.”

He added, “Al­though he was not the longest-serv­ing Chief Sec­re­tary, it shows that some­times qual­i­ty trumps quan­ti­ty when it comes to lega­cy. I wish it had hap­pened be­fore he passed, and I think the re­al ho­n­our for Mr Charles now will be to give To­ba­go the au­ton­o­my that he has cham­pi­oned for all of his life.”

Sev­er­al To­bag­o­ni­ans wel­comed the news.

Stud­ley Park En­ter­prise Ltd chair­man Ash­worth Jack said Charles’ con­tri­bu­tion was un­matched.

“I think Ho­choy’s con­tri­bu­tion to To­ba­go is well known to all, prob­a­bly matched by on­ly one or two oth­er per­sons. Fi­nal­ly, for the kind of work Mr Charles has been do­ing, not on­ly for To­ba­go but for Trinidad and To­ba­go. He has put in a lot of work, and all of us are reap­ing the re­ward of his labour,” Jack said.

He added that the award was al­so a trib­ute to Charles’ fam­i­ly.

“Un­for­tu­nate­ly, this is done posthu­mous­ly. I would have liked to see him be­ing pinned with the award, but so be it. I think his chil­dren would have had to make a lot of sac­ri­fices, be­cause when you’re in pub­lic life, some­times the chil­dren don’t see you for days. So, any­thing that comes to Mr Charles in a pos­i­tive light, I think he well de­serves it. It’s a very fit­ting trib­ute.”

THA As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary Ter­ance Baynes said the award recog­nised Charles’ last­ing im­pact.

“What­ev­er he be­lieved, he stood firm­ly for those things, and he has made an in­deli­ble mark on the de­vel­op­ment of To­ba­go.”

To­bag­on­ian Ju­dah Joe­field said it was “decades over­due.”

“We shouldn’t have to wait un­til our he­roes pass on to ac­tu­al­ly recog­nise them,” he said.

Ma­jor Cum­ber­batch agreed, say­ing, “I am hap­py, I am over­joyed that he is fi­nal­ly be­ing recog­nised.”