In December 2021, Farley Chavez Augustine led the Progressive Democratic Patriots to a historic 14-1 win in the Tobago House of Assembly elections over the People’s National Movement.
In the process, Augustine became the youngest ever THA Chief Secretary.
A role the Speyside native predicted he would ascend to four years earlier.
The PDP’s victory, according to political analysts, signalled a much-needed change of guard on the sister isle after more than 20 years of PNM rule.
And while Augustine was not the party’s leader, he was the face of the party—portrayed as a young, in-touch, intelligent, progressive and humble leader.
The party’s official leader was its founder and owner, the one and only Watson Solomon Duke.
It wouldn’t take long for the two to clash.
2022 was the year in which Tobago Love/Bacchanal dominated Tobago politics, putting Augustine’s resolve to the test.
After long-standing rumours of spats between Duke and Augustine since the PDP entered office, the party finally split over Duke’s public accusation that Augustine abandoned 27 members of the Roxborough Folk Performers in New York.
In response to Duke’s criticism, Augustine said he would review Duke’s role as Deputy Chief Secretary.
Days later, Duke removed Augustine, Dr Faith B Yisrael and Alicia Roberts-Patterson as PDP deputy leaders.
In September, Duke then resigned as the Deputy THA Chief Secretary.
Then, in early December, Augustine and the entire THA executive resigned from the PDP, meaning that the party that won the THA election in December 2021 was no longer represented on the THA a year later.
In his many accusations against Augustine following his exit from the THA, Duke accused Augustine of being a one-man show who lacked respect for him.
Their disputes dominated the headlines for much of the year, pushing Augustine’s policies to the background.
According to Augustine, the PDP’s first year in office was a success with Tobago’s first indigenous carnival, the creation of three new roads and bridges, the transitioning of Roxborough Hospital to a 24-hour facility, the largest payout of Home Improvement Grants in THA history, negotiating the reopening of beaches during the pandemic, as well as an increase in URP and CEPEP worker salaries.
However, Tobagonian economist and former senior policy advisor Dr Vanus James believes Farley Augustine has failed to live up to expectations during his first year in office.
He believed the PDP’s split was a measure of political incompetence by Duke because Tobago desperately needed to build a democratic party that accommodates all voices in the decision-making process.
“He demonstrated little capacity to work with Duke and to lead Duke—assuming Duke is leadable at all—but that would be a genuine deficiency displayed by him and Duke, and it has left the Tobago community in, at times, a weak position which is reflected in the Moody’s downgrade.
“It has consequences to attract investment outside of Tobago to come and in develop the economy. That’s a big one,” Dr James said.
The United Nations Development Programme Consultant said Augustine, by extension, failed to create effective policy.
“If you don’t have a viable democratic party you have problems creating policy and creating policy with members of your own party - your own friends - in the policy-making process. Remember there are two angles to creating policy in any democratic process. One is getting your party to help you shape policy and then to market the policy to members and the communities that the party is trying to lead…The other side of that is the other part of the failure which is the failure to include an inclusive government process in Tobago.
“The failure to set up the THA’s work process to allow for mechanisms to which the public could independently review the work you’re doing - in what you see in the rest of the world as hearings - that failure to put that in place has really lead to the failure of developing any serious development agenda in Tobago over the last year,” Dr James said.
With Duke now out of the THA picture, Augustine has no excuses left.
Will the golden boy of Tobago politics lead Tobago on the path to a progressive future or will his relative lack of experience prove too much to surmount?
Time will tell, but there’s no doubt that Augustine’s first year in office was overshadowed by the bitter dispute with Duke.
Stay tuned for more Tobago drama in the new year.
