Dr Winford James
trinicenter.com

Orville and his stupidness

By Dr. Winford James
May 08, 2005


Orville London, Chief Secretary of Tobago in his second term of office, has done Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago, and history a terrible disservice and, to borrow a metaphor from lawn tennis, it was entirely an unforced error. In tennis, unforced errors are never deliberate but come about as a result of factors like poor placement, poor timing, and poor physical control. But in London's case, the error was deliberate, studied, calculated. In other words, he did not have to make it. But that he made it nonetheless makes it not merely terrible but horrific.

What he did was to delete ANR Robinson as the mover of the 1977 motion for internal self-government for Tobago and replace him by Kamaludin Mohammed. Yes, that's right. If you always thought that Robinson was the man who moved that motion, according to London you are wrong; it was Kamal instead. Put that in your stupid pipe and smoke it. Or, if you prefer, take that in your rukungkutungkung.

The historical facts surrounding the passage of the motion are quite clear and easily accessible. On January 14, 1977, Robinson moved and Dr. Winston Murray seconded the following motion:

Be it resolved: That this Honourable House is of the opinion that all proper and necessary steps should be taken to accord to the people of Tobago internal self-government in 1977 in such measure as will not be contradictory to the constitutional reality of the independent unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago, such proper and necessary steps to take into account:
a. The views of the majority of the people of Tobago;
b. The cultural, financial and economic realities and potential of Trinidad and of Tobago;
c. The impact of any such change on other parts of Trinidad and Tobago.

The motion was accepted by the House of Representatives on February 4, 1977 and it is this motion that London says Kamal moved.

How did London come to that incredible view? Before I answer the question, let me relate in more detail the action he took.

Councillor Hochoy Charles brought a motion to the House of Assembly 'call[ing] upon the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to pursue, as a matter of urgency, constitution reform to accord to the people of Tobago democratic internal self-government in 2005, inter alia'. In the motion, Charles noted, as part of the background, that the parliament of Trinidad and Tobago had 'unanimously approved in 1977 internal self-government for Tobago on a motion moved by the Honourable Arthur N. R. Robinson, the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) member of Parliament for Tobago East'.

In response, London proposed a number of deletions, including the following: 'Delete "Honourable Arthur N. R. Robinson, the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) member of Parliament for Tobago East"... '[and] Replace by "then Honourable Minister of Health and Minister of Local Government, Kamuludin Mohammed"'. And he got the PNM assemblymen to agree automatically with him!

Why would London delete Robinson for Kamal when we all know that it is Robinson who moved the motion? Why would he when Kamal did not even speak on the motion - when not even the great Eric Williams did either?

I'll tell you. He was looking for the slightest basis to give the PNM credit in the matter of internal self-government for Tobago. He thought he saw it in the way a parliamentary record states the motion we are talking about. That record presents a motion in the name of Kamal as then Minister of Health and Local Government, and it begins with 'Be it resolved: That this House consider that it is expedient that a Committee of both Houses be set up to consider the following matters' and ends with Robinson's motion which was one of the matters, and which it presents as having been accepted by the House of Representatives on February 04, 1977.

Kamal's motion called for the setting up of a committee to consider (you could read here: 'give effect to') Robinson's motion, so it of necessity incorporated Robinson's motion. But the fact that it incorporated the motion does not, and cannot, mean that he moved it!

London is a highly educated man, is a historian, and was a senator, so he must have known that. So the kindest conclusion we have to come to is that he was deliberately distorting history for the (spurious) benefit of the PNM.

His action of replacing Robinson by Kamal was not only unnecessary but is also dishonest, wretched, and insufferable. Unbelievably, he tried to manipulate the historical record for some recondite political benefit. He should pay the appropriate political price!



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