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Ashwork Jack, who now serves as a liaison co-ordinator to the Office of the Prime Minister advising on Tobago affairs, during an interview at the offices of Central Administrative Services Tobago. - Photo by Alva ViarruelAlva Viarruel
WATSON Duke should sit out the next Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections to allow the ruling Tobago People’s Party (TPP) to retain its 13 seats in the Legislature against the Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM).
This is the view of veteran Tobago politician Ashworth Jack, whose rise to prominence in the island’s political affairs once more was evident during the recent visit by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and members of the Cabinet.
The former leader of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) who was appointed by the PM as the liaison coordinator for Tobago in the Office of the Prime Minister when the United National Congress took office last April, now has a role akin to a minister of government, where he speaks to the Cabinet (and by extension the Government) on what is in Tobago’s best interest.
It was his fervent lobbying, in fact, which led to the government granting an export licence to Tobago’s Studley Park Enterprises Limited (SPEL), a move which he described as “a major game changer for Tobago.” SPEL was the creation of the Kelvin Charles administration to operate the loss-making quarry, which then saw a profitable turnaround by the time Charles was booted out of office by his own party. Jack resigned as chairman of SPEL to take on his new role.
The THA elections are now due between January 12 and February 12, 2026, as Chief Secretary Farley Augustine advised President Christine Kangaloo to dissolve the Legislature on November 12.
In an interview with Newsday at his office in the Central Administrative Services Tobago in the capital Scarborough, Jack, who last campaigned under the umbrella One Tobago Voice in 2013, said he expects the TPP and the PNM to be the two parties to contest the THA polls.
But what of Duke’s Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) – which won the last contest 14-1 but subsequently disintegrated in office after Duke resigned from the Executive Council, and which led to the formation of the TPP – should they not contest as well? Jack laughed in response.
“Only Watson could answer that one. I wouldn’t dare to answer for Mr Duke. But I pray that good sense will prevail. I know that Mr Duke is a man who has shown a lot of fervor and a lot of love for Tobago, but I don’t think that it will be in his best or Tobago’s best interest to divide the votes.”
Questioned further on his view of the rift that resulted in the internal conflict that put the PDP out of office and the dissenting members subsequently assuming power under the TPP umbrella, Jack replied : “I know how to mind my own business.”
Asked if he was he surprised? “Human beings don’t surprise me,” he said.
Jack played the role of host during the reception at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Blenheim during her visit and guided meetings with the THA and other stakeholders. He sees his new role as “a facilitator” to maintain a harmonious relationship between the THA’s Executive Council and the Cabinet.
“I’m in a pivotal position to help Tobago get what it deserves. I’m hoping people don’t see me as a threat. I am not a threat. I’m a facilitator. I’ve been placed here by the PM in her wisdom to facilitate the growth of the government of the island of Tobago by giving them the necessary powers that they need and by allowing those in central government to understand Tobago’s role (in the national agenda)…what the Constitution says in terms of what belongs to Tobago and what belongs to Trinidad without friction,” he said.
“It has worked very well. So far, there have been no major fallouts,” he added. “It doesn’t mean the government doesn’t have the right to speak its mind on certain matters, and vice versa for the THA and the people of Tobago to speak their mind on certain matters. There is maturity here, and you can disagree without being disagreeable.”
Jack noted that it was under Persad-Bissessar’s last government (the People’s Partnership) that a Constitution (Amendment) Bill was brought to the Parliament in 2013, which addressed the question of autonomy for Tobago.
“We visited the former president and prime minister ANR Robinson to get his stamp of approval, which we did get, and it was taken to Parliament but required a three-fitfths majority vote and because of the politics, the then opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley was the only person who spoke and said they would not take part in the debate and the entire Opposition bench walked out.”
He said the PNM didn’t take part in subsequent Joint Select Committee meetings to discuss the Bill either, and it died there. The TOP subsequently lost its bid to secure Tobago East and West seats and “the whole question of autonomy for Tobago went dormant after that until the run-up to the last elections.”
The UNC then opposed a Bill put forward by the PNM, which, according to Jack, was “not a reflection of what was discussed in the consultations held with the people of Tobago. It lacked a number of things, I’m certain of that,” he said.
Jack noted that Act 40 of 1996, which was brought to Parliament by former UNC attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, was the closest document to what the people of Tobago wanted, but which also “went to Parliament as one thing and came out as another” because the Government lacked the majority vote it needed and compromised to what the PNM wanted.
Jack said he expects these issues to be addressed in short order, and very soon, Tobago would have the authority to direct its destiny.
“Even though by law the THA is responsible for its own town and country planning legislation, it has never been given to the island. But very soon, for the first time since 1889 (when the sovereign state of Trinidad and Tobago was formed), Tobago will have the responsibility and oversight to determine how Tobago is developed,” from an urban and rural planning point of view, he said, referring to ongoing discussions between the THA and the Cabinet.
Asked if he saw better days ahead for Tobago, he said, “I would like to think that anything is better than where we just came out from.”
And what if the election results in a change of the administration?
“Well, I would hope that anyone who comes into office would see the need to push the Tobago agenda. But I am a politician, and I would say this: we as Tobagonians need to know what’s best for us. We have seen what we did not have. We have now seen what we’re about to get, so are we suckers for punishment? Do we want to go back to the same thing to start all over again? To me, this is the platform that we should take off from to get better than 1996 in terms of law-making, and I am hoping that the powers that be, whoever is in the assembly, understand that we are servants of the people and also that we’re at the crossroads of history, and therefore we need to do what is necessary.”
English (US) ·