This week the focus will be on a visit to the island by members of the People's Partnership (PP) Government headed by Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The government entourage was due to touch down in Tobago on Wednesday of this week and will spend the remainder of the week. The Ministers will meet in Cabinet at the Coco Reef Resort on Thursday following which they will meet face to face with Secretaries of the Executive Council. We believe this is a wonderful gesture by the new government because we believe that there is a need to forge a new and progressive relationship between the people of Tobago and of Trinidad.

During the past three decades, the Tobago/Trinidad relationship has gone through some stormy weather. The situation exploded in 1976 after the PNM lost the two Tobago seats to the Democratic Action Congress (DAC). The then PNM leader Dr. Eric Williams in a 'fit of anger' closed down the Ministry of Tobago affairs, which was the center of the island's administration. This action by Williams caused many problems for Tobagonians as even workers day sheets had to be sent to Trinidad causing delays in their payment.

Since then there has been a struggle for more autonomy for Tobago and some wild remarks by politicians on both sides of the divide has fermented an anti Trinidadian sentiment among Tobagonians. However, the current situation in which the PNM has once again lost the two Tobago seats has presented a golden opportunity for a new and beautiful unity between Tobagonians and Trinidadians.

Large majorities of the people of both islands were recently united in their desire to rid the country of the PNM government. Now, with a more progressive thinking government in office, this is a time for the wise heads in Government and in Tobago to sit and decide the best way forward to harmonise the most beautiful relationship between Tobagonians and Trinidadians. This is why we welcome Mrs Persad-Bissessar and her Cabinet and hope that the face to face meetings among ministers and secretaries would form the basis of a new type of governance with a PNM THA administration and a PP central government.

Chief Secretary Orville London who wrote Mrs Persad-Bissessar on June 6 outlining a number of Tobago issues that needed to be dealt with at a one and one meeting, did so last week Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Port of Spain. These discussions are expected to be continued when they meet at the Calder Hall Office of the Chief Secretary on Thursday. We believe this visit could provide the impetus for that new relationship evoking into something special.