TOBAGO People’s Party (TPP) political leader Farley Augustine has accused the PNM of failing to push for the regularisation of Tobago land titles in the Parliament.
At a political meeting in Goodwood on April 10, Augustine said the party’s candidates David Thomas and Joel Sampson must address the issue in the Parliament if they win the two Tobago seats in the April 28 general election.
He told supporters that the problem could only be solved in the Parliament.
“I am raising it because the matter of registry and land registry that is retained under the sixth schedule of Act 40 of 1996 says clearly that the THA shall not have responsibility for. So in other words, for the last 25 years, we voted for 20 of those PNM and not one of them thought to actually fix the problem. The problem can only be fixed at the national Parliament,” he said.
“That is why I am saying to you, Goodwood, tonight (April 10) that you tried Ayanna (Webster-Roy) for ten years. She eh fix it. Let us send David Joseph Thomas with the mandate to fix that problem on our behalf. I am saying to you, Tobago West, for ten years you voted for Shamfa (Cudjoe-Lewis) to fix it and she had an extra five when she was appointed senator and she didn’t fix it. Let us vote her out and vote for Joel Marcus Sampson on April 28 to fix it.”
>
Augustine said Tobago was represented by the PNM in the Parliament for 20 of the last 25 years.
“Swing it how ever you want, from 2000 to present, 20 of those years, we had PNM representatives and for only five of the last 25 years, Tobago voted differently in the persons of Vernella Alleyne-Toppin and Delmon Baker in 2010.”
Speaking directly to the young men in the crowd, he said, “We have in Tobago a situation where for generations we can’t get our lands in our name. For generations, we have a problem where family fighting family because family can’t decide who should own the land.
“Granny dead and everybody fighting for the house. But granny could not have made a will for the house because the land was never in granny name. And it wasn’t in granny’s mother name, or granny’s father name or granny’s great grand-parents name either because we had an informal system from colonial days to present.”
He told them they are at a disadvantage if their parents do not have deeds to the lands they are living on.
Augustine used his own family as an example.
“Up to this present day, my father’s water bill does come to somebody in care of Farley Augustine Sr. In other words, he live on the land, he navel string on the land but he paying water rate in some dead body that he doesn’t even know.
“And because of that situation, my parents could not go to the bank with a piece of land to get a loan. They had to fight up with the morning ‘wuk’ salary and build piece, piece to build his house. I am three generations later since that land was acquired by my great grandparents and I can’t take that piece of land to the bank either because it is not in my name. It is not in meh father’s name. It not in meh grandfather’s name and it not in meh great grandfather’s name.”
He said the issue is “not just a Speyside problem but a while of Tobago problem.”
>
Augustine told the young men that if lands are in their name, they could use it as collateral to set up businesses and be self-sufficient.
“Most Tobagonians I know want to be self-reliant. They want to manage their own business and prefer to work for themselves, to turn their key to their own business, to open and close when they want, to earn their own money.”
He said the failure to get land titles has resulted in some young people having to struggle to survive.
“You are left to struggle on the corner, you are left to sell a little weed to make some money because you can’t even collateralise the land that your family have.
“And on top of that, when you drive around this island, we see a lot of beautiful houses in beautiful locations, on beautiful pieces of land covered in bush because the family fighting over who should own the house.
“Because you live with granny all the time, you taking care of mammy all the time and as soon as mammy or daddy dead, those who live America fly back home and decide they must get the house over you and you can’t do nothing to the house.”
Augustine said Tobagonians must have titles to their land “to be empowered to have proper estate management and planning.”
