As the Joint Select Committee on the Constitution (Amendment)(Tobago Self-Government) Bill 2018 continues, the issue of the “equality of status between the Island of Trinidad and the Island of Tobago within the sovereign democratic State of Trinidad and Tobago and the Island of Tobago shall no longer carry the designation of a ward…” as expressed in the section 5 of the bill needs to be examined.
The only way that such an intent can be accomplished is if this bill, in its current form, is amended. This bill is a very fundamental attempt at constitution reform which permits the Parliament and the citizens the opportunity to reset the foundation stone of the State in a way that will permit an age of renaissance in this country that is sorely needed.
However, to accomplish this desire to create “equality of status” between the islands will only come with a substantive amendment to the Constitution. The current proposed arrangements will only permit a nomenclature change which will leave Tobago in a position of dependency on Trinidad and not having the opportunity to have final responsibility lying in Tobago.
The concept of the unitary state will have to be set aside in favour of a federation whereby the jurisdiction of Tobago that is proposed to be defined as 11 miles from the low water mark around Tobago without such an equivalent definition for Trinidad will need to be revisited. For equality to be meaningful, there will have to be a similar limitation for Trinidad so that the remaining undefined waters will fall into the national space.
This concept will stretch the imagination to consider that only through a federation will true “equality of status” come. In section 4 of the bill, the preamble to the Constitution is proposed to be amended to include the following:
“(ca) recognise the right to self-determination of the people of Trinidad and Tobago including the right of the people of Tobago to determine in Tobago their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
Why does this proposed section not include a similar right for the people of Trinidad to determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural development? If the bill were to do that, it would convey the equality of status that it envisages.
Tobago and Trinidad can co-exist very comfortably in a federal state with each island having its own government and there being a federal government in Port-of-Spain with powers that apply across both islands as a single nation.
There could quite easily be a Trinidad Legislature that would be responsible for government affairs in Trinidad only with an equivalent Legislature in Tobago that will be responsible for government affairs in Tobago only.
To accomplish this there can be a Concurrent List of powers and an Exclusive List of powers. Without that, there will be an isolation of Tobago inside of a defined geographical boundary, while the effective Government of Trinidad will be the central government of T&T with a domination of needs by Trinidad.
Part of the historical hurt that was imposed on Tobago in 1899 when the union was effected was the fact that the then existing laws of Tobago were set aside and the laws of Trinidad were imposed on the new twin-island colony as the existing laws of T&T.
Those existing laws and all others after that were deemed at independence to be the existing laws of T&T and further continued up to the acquisition of republican status when a new set of existing laws were defined. That is why there is a provision in section 5 of the bill that talks about Tobago no longer carrying “the designation of a ward.” That designation arose out of the 1899 arrangements that pushed Tobago backwards at the expense of Trinidad.
To simply say that in any laws that may exist since 1899 that still refer to Tobago as a ward that this reference shall no longer apply is laudable, but the effect of the rest of the provisions will still leave Tobago in a secondary position unless equality is guaranteed by a federal formula.
There is a tremendous opportunity to effect a renaissance in T&T with a completely different state formula that will ignite new opportunities for the society. A federation of T&T offers that possibility.