Even though I am a politician, I've tried to ensure that my weekly articles are not political, or at least not partisan. But this week I am forced to reverse that position. I must spend a little time talking about the Tobago Autonomy Bills, and present the case that many other Tobagonians have presented: the Bills in their current forms do not represent the wishes of Tobago, and therefore should be amended before officially sent back to the Parliament for debate and passage. I must also state publicly, that the PNM is the only political party on the island that admits the Bills are not perfect, but recommend that we accept them in their imperfect forms and push to have them amended in the future.

Why the PNM's position is critically flawed

The Bills currently before the Parliament are The Constitution (Amendment) (Tobago Self-government) Bill 2021 and The Tobago Island Government Bill, 2021. The Constitution Amendment Bill is aimed at changing key clauses of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago, while the Island Government Bill will repeal and replace the current Tobago House of Assembly Act, 40 of 1996.

The Constitution of TT is the supreme law of the land. As a result, to amend the constitution requires what is known as a Special Majority, which requires three quarters of the Members of the House of Representatives (31 of the 41 Members of Parliament) and two thirds of the Senate (21 of the 31 Senators) to vote for the amendments to be accepted. As a result, the philosophy that we should allow the Bills with the current flaws to be passed, then fight for some future Parliament to make the changes is a risk that we should not take. We do not know which political party will rule the Parliament in the future. We do not know whether Tobago will be able to convince that party to bring the amendments to the Parliament for them to be debated. We do not know whether the Opposition will vote for those changes in the future. The fact is we simply do not know what the future holds, so we should not bank on correcting the wrongs in the future.

What are some of the recommended changes?

When the Prime Minister made his contribution about these Bills at the 21st Sitting of the House of Representatives on March 9, 2018, he indicated there were a number of issues 'fundamental to an equitable relationship between the two islands in the sovereign democratic nation of Trinidad and Tobago.' These issues included:

(a) Equality of status between the two islands and a legislative framework reflecting such equality

(b) A federal type system of governance

(c) Definition and delineation of the boundaries of each island in accordance with the Constitution

(d) The responsibility of the Tobago Administration to formulate and implement policy on all matters affecting the lives of people resident in Tobago.

The critical clauses that must be amended all relate to these fundamental issues as outlined by Dr Keith Rowley:

1. Equality of status

The current draft of the Constitution Amendme