Ken Ali

?Ash­worth Jack, po­lit­i­cal leader of the two-year-old To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP), has been thrust in­to the na­tion­al po­lit­i­cal main­stream through an elec­toral al­liance with Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress. Jack, Mi­nor­i­ty Leader in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, dis­cussed elec­tion is­sues with the Sun­day Guardian.

?Q: How pre­pared is TOP for the gen­er­al elec­tion?

A: We are as pre­pared as any po­lit­i­cal par­ty and bet­ter than most. We nev­er stopped or­gan­is­ing since the 2009 THA elec­tion, so we were not caught un­awares.

Could you in­di­cate your prospec­tive can­di­dates?

We have four nom­i­nees, and they will come down to two on Mon­day. For To­ba­go East, they are pathol­o­gist Dr Hughvon de Vi­gnes and Dr Vanil­la Al­leyne-Top­pin. The nom­i­nees for To­ba­go West are Dr Theodill McPher­son and Dr Them­nold Bak­er. We will de­cide on the can­di­dates on Mon­day.

What does TOP of­fer dif­fer­ent­ly from PNM?

Every­thing. We be­lieve in a To­ba­go that can make de­ci­sions in To­ba­go for To­ba­go. We be­lieve there must be hon­esty in gov­ern­ment, in term lim­its for lead­ers, both the Prime Min­is­ter and THA Chief Sec­re­tary. We be­lieve de­ci­sions should be made af­ter con­sul­ta­tions with the peo­ple. De­ci­sions must not be forced down peo­ple's throats.

Are you ful­ly pleased with the re­la­tion­ship with UNC?

We have been work­ing for some time on re­la­tions with UNC and COP. We were talk­ing with COP just as much as UNC. Both Win­ston Dook­er­an and Prakash Ra­mad­har have been speak­ing with us for quite a while. I have at­tend­ed a num­ber of foun­da­tion for good gov­er­nance work­shops and spoke at them. I have been work­ing with oth­er re­lat­ed or­gan­i­sa­tions. We met last week with UNC, and I am hap­py at the com­mit­ments to good gov­er­nance. I am see­ing a gen­uine at­tempt to cre­ate change. We agreed that if we do not see eye to eye, we would talk and try to find a so­lu­tion.

Have there been any neg­a­tive re­spons­es to your ac­cord?

Of course, we have had. Ini­tial­ly, some PNM sup­port­ers were say­ing we sold out To­ba­go to the In­di­ans. I find that to be in­ter­est­ing. The PNM is talk­ing about Vi­sion 2020, about build­ing a de­vel­oped coun­try, and they are try­ing to di­vide it by race and by re­gion. But we will work with peo­ple of like mind to save the coun­try from that kind of thing.

If there is elec­toral vic­to­ry, is TOP like­ly to play a vi­tal role in gov­er­nance?

We will not have it any oth­er way. If we are part­ners, we must re­spect that. It is not some­thing the UNC has ob­ject­ed to, or the COP, for that mat­ter.

What are the crit­i­cal is­sues fac­ing To­ba­go?

Con­sti­tu­tion­al re­form is a ma­jor is­sue. We can't make de­ci­sions on mat­ters af­fect­ing To­ba­go. There are 41 Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and 31 sen­a­tors, mean­ing that there are 72 mem­bers of both Hous­es. But there are no sen­a­tors who, as of right, must be ap­point­ed from To­ba­go. De­ci­sions that af­fect To­bag­o­ni­ans are be­ing made by peo­ple who prob­a­bly can­not find To­ba­go.

If the sit­u­a­tion were re­versed, would Trinidad be hap­py that of 72 mem­bers of both Hous­es of Par­lia­ment, on­ly two must, of right, be from Trinidad?

We of To­ba­go aren't. We must be able to make more de­ci­sions about To­ba­go. Look at the sit­u­a­tion with re­spect to Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Unit; to build a home, you must get ap­proval from Port-of-Spain. Some peo­ple don't know where to find the of­fice. Would Trinidad be hap­py with that? Sure­ly not. The sit­u­a­tion is the same with re­spect to land trans­ac­tions. Pen­sions are cal­cu­lat­ed in Port-of-Spain. You have to go to Port-of-Spain to han­dle tax mat­ters. There are oth­er ex­am­ples. Who could be com­fort­able with that?

Is the with­draw­al of Ren­nie Du­mas' PNM can­di­da­cy good or bad news for TOP?

It does not mat­ter ei­ther way. What has been his lev­el of rep­re­sen­ta­tion? I don't know how much he has rep­re­sent­ed the peo­ple of To­ba­go East. I looked at his con­tri­bu­tions in Par­lia­ment, and he has not rep­re­sent­ed the peo­ple ef­fec­tive­ly. He has not spo­ken well. There are a num­ber of pieces of leg­is­la­tion he should have ob­ject­ed to, such as the Town and Coun­try, Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty and oth­ers, that would af­fect To­ba­go in a neg­a­tive way.

Do you call that rep­re­sen­ta­tion?

Are you op­ti­mistic about the im­me­di­ate fu­ture?

Very! From the found­ing con­ven­tion of TOP on Sep­tem­ber 26, 2008, we have con­tin­ued to build and de­vel­op, so that we got 48 per cent sup­port in the THA elec­tion of Jan­u­ary 19, 2009. We moved from one to four seats. We lost three seats by mar­gins of 58, 78 and 195 votes. We have not stopped work­ing. We will con­tin­ue to build our or­gan­i­sa­tion. We are con­fi­dent of vic­to­ry; very con­fi­dent!

What are your own per­son­al po­lit­i­cal am­bi­tions?

To be the leader of TOP and to as­pire to be­come Chief Sec­re­tary of To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly. But I want to lead a strong or­gan­i­sa­tion that would help to change the coun­try. That's more im­por­tant than any po­si­tion I can hold. I be­lieve in the ?prin­ci­ples of hon­esty and fair play. That's what I want. If out of that comes the po­si­tion of Chief Sec­re­tary, then that's fine.

Would you be cam­paign­ing in Trinidad?

I was on the UNC plat­form at Mara­bel­la. It was won­der­ful. I may be there on oth­er plat­forms. But I have a cam­paign to run and an elec­tion to win in To­ba­go.

What do you want to say to the To­ba­go elec­torate?

This is an elec­tion in which the elec­torate must be smart. They have to ask them­selves whether they have been prop­er­ly gov­erned over the past two-and-a-half years. If not, why not? I ap­peal to the elec­torate to let good sense pre­vail. Their fu­ture is at stake.