A look at the political life of former President Robinson

A N R Robinson has been able to manoeuvre his political life on to centre stage in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

He entered politics in 1948 and was defeated in Tobago in the Federal Elections in that same year. He stood as a candidate for the People’s National Movement (PNM) for Tobago. Notwithstanding this unfavourable result he persevered with the PNM and the PNM then under the leadership of Dr Eric Williams, he stood as a candidate for Tobago East and won in 1961. He became the Minister of Finance and soon found himself with the additional portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister.

What are his achievements as a Minister of Finance? The then Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams was giving primacy to the management of the economy. Mr A N R Robinson was the chosen Minister for fiscal and monetary policy and the management of these two fields in Trinidad and Tobago. With respect to fiscal policy based upon revenue collected and expected to be collected as well as the expenditure thereof, according to Mr Robinson’s book called: The Mechanics of Independence” at Chapter 9, Mr Robinson saw the need for fiscal discipline which he decomposed into three categories:

1. “... A fiscal structure designed to raise adequate revenues to enable the Government to discharge its functions ...”

2. “... The collection of those revenues ...”

3. “... The rigid control of expenditure ...”

In themselves, they are the key components of fiscal policy. However, to achieve fiscal discipline which Mr Robinson negated to treat in his book The Mechanics of Independence was the focusing of his Budget to maximise the return on the resources in Trinidad and Tobago, then an oil rather than a gas based economy, to ensure an equitable distribution of those resources by adequate Housing Programme and at the same time, to stabilise the economy where there was a trajectory of economic growth as part of the macro-economic horizon.

With respect to monetary policy, there was the establishment of the Central Bank and the independence of Government from the operations and management of the Central Bank. This was laid down in legislation through The Central Bank Act of 1964. With the benefit of hindsight, Trinidad and Tobago devalued its currency in 1968 when the British Pound Sterling was devalued and again in 1971 when the US Dollar devalued. However, on both these occasions, Mr Robinson was no longer in the Ministry of Finance nor can any culpability be assigned to him. The devaluation arose out of owing to our reserve currencies and to maintain parity, the Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams moved towards devaluation in tandem.

Although an Economic Plan 1964-1968 was formulated by Sir Arthur Lewis, a Nobel Laureate in Economics and that of 1968-1971 by Mr William Demas, Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister, there was no linkage between the Development Plan and the allocation of capital expenditure under these two Development Plans. Budgeting during that period was to achieve a current surplus. Deficit financing was unheard of and was even deprecated. It is tempting to comment adversely on predecessors executing their functions. However, it was becoming apparent that the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which became such in 1976, with its main exports in oil and sugar needed to focus on how these two principal commodities could have been linked to fiscal and monetary policy, to maximise the growth of the national economy.

This did not happen and subsequent administrations have pursued the same policy since they are unaware of the swift changes that are dependent upon the forcefulness of a country’s politicians to master the capital markets of the world. In other words, the economic management of the economy has always been at the periphery and foreign Corporations have out manoeuvred the politicians in the management of the economy. In 1970 there was the expression of black consciousness in our society. During that period, Mr Robinson resigned his Ministerial portfolio as Minister of External Affairs from the PNM Government. Soon after, he formed the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) which never gained political momentum in both Trinidad and Tobago.

During this period he did not have a seat in Parliament, nor in living memory did any cases before the Court in Trinidad and Tobago where his reputation as a lawyer was greater than average. In contradistinction, his political career he retained. With the benefit of hindsight rather than foresight, after having failed in Trinidad with the DAC, he returned to Tobago. He remained in Tobago and became Chairman of the Tobago House of Assembly in 1981. With the passing on of Dr Eric Williams, Mr Robinson’s political career became on the front burner. After the uneventful period of the PNM from 1981-1986, headed by George Chambers and cynically encapsulated in two calypsoes: “Captain The Ship Is Sinking” and “Chambers Done See”, Robinson rose into prominence with the formation of the National Alliance For Reconstruction (NAR). A landslide election was won by the NAR in 1986 and Robinson became Prime Minister.

With marked conviction, although there was unholy wastage by the PNM, Robinson pursued a programme of leadership by fear, rather than respect. On all his castigations, all his prosecutions failed and most important, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prescription for Trinidad and Tobago was implemented by Winston Dookeran and Selby Wilson, neither of whom really understood the management of a resource based economy. The 1986-1991 period was characterised by the following:

1. Failure to implement with mechanisms IMF conditionalities.
2. Salaries were abruptly cut without negotiating with the Public Service.
3. No prescriptions on investment, particularly the gas resources in Trinidad and Tobago.

Robinson was very effective in employing his Parliamentary seat in Tobago with that of colleague, Pamela Nicholson, to gain political mileage with two main Political Parties, the United National Congress (UNC) and the PNM. Since these events are very recent and the writer herein has publicly stated his views on many forums, I would resist the temptation because of my moral fibre and leave the religion for Mr Robinson in the preamble to our Constitution, to continue to voice his opinion. Hopefully, I have done my due diligence and cannot define a specific contribution that he has made to the body polity to decrease unemployment, and to reverse the level of rising poverty through the management of our resources, particularly the gas based resources — the life blood of our people and of the two succeeding generations to come.