Autonomy talks (once more)

The spirit of Christmas and elections is in the air. Tis no surprise that ‘Autonomy’ is somehow going to be thrown at us here in Tobago.¹ As if people weren’t having a hard enough time of things already. The message this round is coming from the head of the Tobago People’s Party; the Honourable Chief Secretary Farley Augustine.

Hats of to the guy. He’s had a hard enough time trying to gauge and obtain the goodwill of the very people who so boldly proclaim ‘want the very best for themselves’.

Several things play a part to put the lie to Tobago autonomy as it is currently being sold. Some hold the dichotomous version - that if one ain’t for it one is against it. Which is not necessarily a mainstream opinion.. Some say definition/clarity of the concept is lacking.

Autonomy is complicated. Some describe it as people existing between two poles; the dependant state and the sovereign state. Islands - our focus in this conversation, tend to lack the amount of resources that would ensure their ability to finance, support via a resident workforce and to compete in the global marketplace.

Autonomous island states - not a lot exist, can be found lying in a continuum between dependency and sovereignty. In today’s world the autonomous island typically function on the sub-national level of the state where they occur and therefore combine Self-rule with Shared rule in various ways (Baldacchino 2004: 77).

Pundits are pushing the line Tobago can have its cake and eat it too. The fact of the matter is that the Tobago man in the street is quite happy to toe the line fed by any government so long as the annual allocation of keeps coming.

However it’s not by accident Augustine is talking autonomy. He is simply fresh out of choices to report ‘Delivered’ to the people. Central government choked of his (well, the House of Assembly’s) money supply. Funds, which, he had got, might have funded a more palatable and therefore productive diatribe this coming election.