What a repudiation of Tracy Davidson-Celestine and Tobago born Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
The people of Tobago, on Monday rejected them both, in the process ensuring Davidson-Celestine does not become the first female Chief Secretary of the THA and making sure Rowley has the ignominy of being the first sitting Tobago born PM to lose a THA election.
For almost a month Rowley all but moved the Office of Prime Minister to the sister isle as he tried desperately to help his party hold onto power for another term in office, but the wave of change was clearly well entrained and as they say in Tobago: Manure cyar do nutten to old buck-buck tree.
The defeat, and more so the extent of the humiliation, must send a clear message to the PNM, that at least in Tobago, the people are certain that their needs have not been met and were prepared to come together to rid themselves of a party that had governed them for 21 years.
What was also apparent is that former political enemies came together in unison to reject the PNM because as Tobagonians are want to say: One finger cya pick louse.
While there is no exit polling available to us, it is clear that Davidson-Celestine was a drag on her party’s ticket. The PDP successfully targeted her and the questions surrounding things like the Zipline hung like an albatross around her neck and that of her party.
If you don’t believe me, this is what the outgoing Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis told reporters on Tuesday.
“People are free to have their opinions. I think personally, a con job was done on Ms Celestine since last December before the January 2021 election. It is quite unfortunate that the zipline project was used in a way to destroy her reputation and character.
“From my acute knowledge of the zipline project, Tracy Davidson-Celestine did nothing wrong, corrupt or anything that warrants the kind of ridicule or attacks that transpired. That is just politics and we all know perception is reality,” Dennis said.
Con job or not, the reality is that the stain had been created and Davidson-Celestine hurt her party’s chances.
Incumbency was also a problem. It was a problem moreso because the people of Tobago believe that the PNM had not delivered on its promises to them as word ah mouth nuh food ah belly.
During the last 21 years Tobago’s economy has moved from a mixture of government spending, tourism and agriculture to one that was almost totally reliant on government expenditure.
International arrivals peaked in the 2005 period at just under 100,000, mainly because of the devastation done to Grenada by Hurricane Ivan.
After that it steadily declined to the point where in 2019, pre pandemic it was fewer than 20,000 people.
In the interest of transparency, for two years I worked as a Communications Manager in the Tobago Tourism sector and therefore I have had access to information and data that many may not have seen.
From all that I know there are six main challenges with Tobago’s tourism.
The first is lack of sufficient private sector investment in hotels and guest houses. The reality is that most people are comfortable booking hotels that they know.
The lack of hotel brands that international visitors are familiar with is a challenge.
There appears to be some improvement on the horizon with the planned construction of a Marriott hotel and the near completion of a Comfort Inn Suites.
This also plays into the room stock including its capacity and quality.
Secondly Tobago’s tourism suffers from insufficient airlift into the island with no non-stop international flights, except one out of NY and the other direct flights are shared services.
Thirdly Tobago’s sites and attractions are neither well developed nor well maintained.
The fourth challenge is that of poor service. This cannot be underscored and we fool ourselves into believing jovial nature means good service. Tobago must up its service game at all levels, failure to do that will mean few return visitors.
Fifth, is the issue of a lack of sufficient marketing of the destination. And the sixth challenge is the fact that it is a mid to long haul destination from all its major source market.
It therefore does not have the advantage of the northern Caribbean countries of being a short flight from the North American mainland.
What Tobago has that the rest of the region does not, is a captive domestic market of over one million people.
The lack of a laser-like focus on tourism by both the Central Government and the THA resulted in a pre collapse of the sector by 2021 and it will be important that the PDP sees tourism as a growth area.
There is much potential for tourism in both islands, especially with the world moving to more sustainable models. The THA has to work with the central government to get the projects going.
Tobago has real potential for export earnings, for linkages between the sector and agriculture and the THA must not again find itself buying hotels that become white elephants and a drain on taxpayers.
Newly-elected Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has said he intends to do two things. He intends to be a supporter of the private sector.
He accepts that the THA has been crowding out the privater sector, it has skewed the labour market on the sister isle and he wants to be a facilitator.
This is a good position to take and if his administration does that, it will lead to more investment on the island and greater sustainability.
The inability of foreign entities to own land in Tobago has to be relooked at and a organised system that encourages investment but does not hurt ordinary Tobagonians must be found.
The PDP’s deputy political leader has also promised that the THA will encourage entrepreneurship.
One of the great failures of the past PNM has been its creation of a burgeoning public sector, employing 70 per cent of the island’s workforce, leading to low level of productivity, a shrinking private sector and no incentive for entrepreneurship.
It also meant that recurring expenditure ate up much of the THA’s budget, leaving little left-over for development spending.
Augustine has promised to wean some of the staff off the THA tins and to a new life of financial independence. The intent is good and he must be supported in this effort.
A wind of change has blown in Tobago. We must wish the new administration well and they must know that expectation it is high and that while victory has a thousand followers, defeat is an orphan.
Failure is not an option.