Trinidad & Tobago: Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar – Tobago Bill grants Tobago self-government and autonomy

Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. PHOTO/File

Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday that the Tobago Bill will be debated next Wednesday and referred to a Joint Select Committee (JSC) of Parliament for further deliberations.

In a statement to Parliament, Persad-Bissessar said this would enable more time for further discussions and consultations in order to obtain the consent and support of all members of Parliament and the people of Trinidad & Tobago.

The bill, she said, signals that the People’s Partnership has kept its promise made to the people in 2010 and demonstrates that her administration and the Tobago Organization of the People (TOP) place Tobago first.

The move to ensure internal self-government for Tobago, she said, was a dream of former president Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson. Persad-Bissessar said Robinson expressed this in his motion for internal self-government filed in the First Parliament of the Republic in 1976.

“Tobagonians have waited for far too long! Thirty-seven years have passed! This is the Tenth Parliament since we became a Republic!” she said.
The proposed changes contained in the bill, she said, were revolutionary as they will amend a number of sections in the Constitution.

She said it will modify the jurisdiction and authority of two organs of the State, namely, the Parliament and the Executive and these changes will confer greater power on the people of Tobago and their elected representatives; it will limit the powers of the Parliament and the Cabinet vis-à-vis Tobago.
Persad-Bissessar said the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) will be empowered to enact its own laws.

Source: Trinidad Express