TOP launches bid to take two Tobago seats from PNM

The people of Tobago made a bold pitch Tuesday night to take back their island from the People's National Movement as the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) launched its election campaign for the May 24 general election.

Members of the People's Partnership, including UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar and UNC chairman Jack Warner, were present for the meeting.

The PNM held the two seats in the 9th Parliament but it has not always controlled both seats. It lost both seats in 1976 when Arthur N.R. Robinson and Winston Murray of the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) defeated cabinet ministers Basil Pitt and Wilbert Winchester.

Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams immediate reaction was to get rid of the Ministry of Toabgo Affairs.

The DAC and its successor organization, the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), led by Robinson held the seats until 1995 when NAR went to government in a formal coalition government with the UNC, unseating Patick Manning, who lost the election after calling a snap vote.

In 2000 the PNM won back one of the seats and in the election in the next year the party won both seats and has kept them since then.

In 2010 the opposition TOP is the only party running candidates against the PNM and TOP is making a strong bid to take back both seats.

Speaking at the TOP meeting, UNC Chairman Jack Warner said it is a shame how Patrick Manning treats Tobago.

He used the example of St Kitts-Nevis to point out how a twin-island federation can work. He said the government there is respectful of the leadership in Nevis unlike the case of Trinidad and Tobago where Manning treats the Tobago Chief Secretary with contempt.

He said the Nevis Premier is included in government delegations overseas and is consulted on matters of national importance. He also noted that if the Prime Minister cannot attend events he invites the Nevis premier to do it.

Warner noted that Manning shows such disdain for Chief Secretary Orville London that he doesn't even consider the man fit to chair a PNM convention.

And he said when Manning negotiated and signed a maritime treaty with Grenada London was nowhere in the picture.

Warner said that must change.

He also spared some time for humour, noting that he is the product of a coalition. "You see, my father, who is from Tobago, went to Trinidad and met a lady from Trinidad and they produced me. That is coalition."