Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine has threat­ened that To­ba­go will ask the world for help if the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment re­fus­es to grant the is­land greater au­ton­o­my. Speak­ing at the To­ba­go Day Awards be­fore diplo­mats and am­bas­sadors at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex last night, Au­gus­tine said To­ba­go will fight for its right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law.

Speak­ing di­rect­ly to the diplo­mats seat­ed at the front, Au­gus­tine said, “We are pre­pared to en­gage you in this, our fight for the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion in ac­cor­dance with the Uni­ver­sal De­c­la­ra­tion of Hu­man Rights, the In­ter­na­tion­al Covenant on Civ­il and Po­lit­i­cal Rights and the In­ter­na­tion­al Covenant on Eco­nom­ic, So­cial and Cul­tur­al Rights.”

He made it clear that To­ba­go de­mands equal sta­tus with Trinidad, a fed­er­al sys­tem of gov­er­nance, clear­ly de­fined bound­aries in the con­sti­tu­tion, and full con­trol over de­ci­sions af­fect­ing its peo­ple.

“Any is­land, any peo­ple, any na­tion, no mat­ter how small, should nev­er be de­prived of its rights to seek self-de­ter­mi­na­tion for such a long time.”

He en­cour­aged To­bag­o­ni­ans to stay de­ter­mined, say­ing this is the time to push for last­ing changes that will shape the is­land’s fu­ture.