THE AMAZING COMEBACK STORY OF PRESIDENT ARTHUR N R ROBINSON
February 1, 2000
Pages 6 & 7
He
walks with his head down, as if in quiet contemplation. And then he will lift his chin as if suddenly
remembering that’s how leaders should be.
His
steps are unsure now and his eyes are dim.
But Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson always knows exactly where he
is going.
He’s
been instrumental in forming at least three political parties; he’s the man
for whom a shiny new ministerial title was invented; he’s the man who for
years we called ANR but who wants us to now call him Arthur NR.
And,
he continues to re-invent himself: the Comeback Kid from Castara.
“He
wants to go down in history as a great man,” says Dr Winston Murray, a former
Tobago West MP and a one-time political ally of Robinson in the Democratic
Action Congress (DAC).
Robinson
was born into the small Tobago society on December 16, 1926, where his parents
were among the few educated people.
His
late mother, Isabella, had to use ‘a little switch’ on his legs to hasten
him up the hill to school. Young Robinson
won scholarship after scholarship and Murray believes this made him ambitious.
Robinson,
like his friend-turned-foe the late Dr Eric Williams, was an Oxford man. In England, Robinson also qualified as a barrister.
Murray
says their colonial education led them to believe they should be leaders.
Robinson
was a true believer and he found himself at the top of the heap over and over
again – but it wasn’t always a heap of roses.
From
the very first time when he escaped that doghouse kept by Williams as Prime
Minister, Robinson has displayed astounding comeback ability.
He
and Williams were two of the founding members of the People’s National Movement
(PNM). Robinson contested the 1956
general election as the PNM candidate for Tobago and lost. Five years later, he won the Tobago seat and
became the first Finance Minister of independent Trinidad and Tobago.
A
few years later, he and Williams disagreed over the Finance Bill being piloted
by Robinson and he was shifted to Affairs in 1967.
Williams
still kept Robinson close for he acted as Prime Minister on several occasions
when the ‘Doc’ was abroad.
But
on April 13, 1970, Robinson quit the Government, in the midst of the Black
Power uprising.
He
wrote in his resignation letter: “I do so because I do not in all conscience
feel satisfied that a sufficiently serious attempt is being made by the Government
to remove the underlying causes of the present situation in the country.”
Interviewed
a few weeks later by the Express, he said of his plans; “I will be
going into private law practice. But
I am a man of action.”
True
to his words, he didn’t let the grass grow under his feet.
He
soon assumed leadership of an informal grouping of concerned citizens, known
as the Action Committee of Dedicated Citizens (ACDC), which was later subsumed
into the DAC. The DAC, led by Robinson,
and the opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) boycotted the 1971 general
election to protest against the introduction of voting machines.
He
then returned to Tobago and, for the next few years, set about lobbying for
internal self-government for the island.
The product of these efforts was the Tobago House of Assembly (THA)
Act of 1980.
He
had found another rack upon which to hang his hat. He became chairman of the THA after the DAC won the first THA election
in 1980.
Minority
Leader in the THA, William McKenzie, who has been a member of the Assembly
since its inception and the lone PNM representative, said he and Robinson
used to be the first ones to arrive for Assembly meetings.
This
allowed Robinson to survey the scene and get his bearings before others crowded
in – an advantage for any politician.
“He
don’t go to anything late,” McKenzie said.
No
wonder the President’s so upset now that Prime Minister Basdeo Panday kept
him waiting.
It
was during these years at the Assembly that Robinson endeared himself to Tobagonians.
He quit as THA chairman in 1986 to contest the general election as
leader of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR).
Christo
Gift, an attorney and councilor in the current THA, used to drive Robinson
from meeting to meeting in Tobago as they prepared for the 1986 election.
“Wherever
he went he was revered. It was like
driving around an honorary dignitary, he was met with open arms by people
who showed regard and respect for him. He
took it all with humility.”
Robinson
liked Gift to stay well within the speed limit. Gift surmised that this was largely because of the narrow, winding,
uneven Tobago roads. Later, as Prime
Minister and President, he didn’t seem bothered by the higher speeds at which
he was chauffeured.
One
of the hallmarks of Robinson’s comebacks has been the precedents he set.
He
survived Williams. Then, his NAR won
a 33-3 majority in 1986 – the largest to date – and he became Prime Minister,
after spending more than a decade building his constituency in Tobago.
The
NAR’s ‘One Love’ mantra captivated the ballots of the electorate and Robinson
was the shining knight to rescue Trinidad and Tobago.
But
the alliance didn’t last. Two years
later, Panday et al had opted out in a bitter break-up. Sound familiar?
There
are those who say Robinson is stubborn.
“He’s
very determined, I don’t know if you can call him stubborn,” McKenzie said.
Denzil
White, who started hanging around Robinson around 1971 in Tobago, said he’s
“definitely headstrong.”
“If
he’s convinced that something is right, it’s not the easiest thing in the
world to convince him he’s wrong,” White said.
But
Gift remembers an exception to this rule.
Gift
said Robinson has an abiding commitment to certain principles and can be stubborn
on these matters – but not intractable.
He
recalled that there was an internal party matter on which he and Robinson
disagreed at a party meeting. He said
he went to Robinson’s home in Scarborough and talked some more with him. At the party’s next meeting, Robinson backed
down.
“That’s
the man,” Gift said.
Robinson
hasn’t always been the best judge of character and Gift says those who betrayed
or disappointed him were persons in whom he had placed much confidence.
Take
Tobago West MP Pamela Nicholson, for instance.
How
her comments about his mental health in November 1992 must have stung. At a joint news conference with then THA chairman
Lennox Denoon, Nicholson said: “Something is not well with our former prime
minister…I am very pained and I feel that the individual type of behaviour
that I am observing is totally opposite to what I knew, and I personally feel
that there is need for some attention in a particular way.”
Panday
raised that issue again with his references to Robinson’s health last week.
White
says Robinson gave Nicholson too many chances and showed that he wasn’t ‘the
best judge of personality’ when he selected Deborah Moore-Miggins as a Government
Senator.
Robinson
is probably Robinson’s biggest fan.
White
noted that in almost every speech Robinson speaks about himself.
“He’s
making you know that he’s somebody. He
loves himself, you can’t get away from that,” White said.
That
didn’t mean he was arrogant though, White added.
It
may be, some say, that Robinson feels that the country has not been as appreciative
of his efforts as it should be.
Robinson
never endeared himself to Trinidadians. By
1998, the alliance was asunder and the NAR regime had grown unpopular with
its stringent economic measures.
Robinson
was then the knave who had put the financial hurt on the people.
The
Jamaat-al-Muslimeen put the hurt on him on July 27, 1990 when they stormed
Parliament, guns blazing.
During
their bloody coup attempt, Robinson was held hostage in the Red house with
other Government ministers, and was shot in the leg for telling the armed
forces to attack the Red House “with full force” when he was given a radio
and told to call them off.
His
heroics didn’t impress Trinis and they handed him his head in December 1991.
Robinson
kept out of the public eye for months, not even going to Parliament. When he did, he sat quietly, for the most part,
on the benches opposite the Manning government. He complained of being taunted by some people in the public gallery.
Robinson
had spurned an overture by Manning to be treated as an ‘elder statesman.’ He had no intention of bowing out yet.
Between
1992-1995, Robinson worked on his international contacts, increasing his personal
stock.
He
rose within the ranks of Parliamentarians for Global Action, and worked assiduously
on the proposal for an International Criminal Court.
Then
came the political bacchanal of 1995 – Manning’s Hong Kong jaunt, firings
by fax, the Occah Seapaul ruckus and the exit of Ralph Maraj (from the PNM
at least.) Robinson couldn’t help
but get involved.
But
he really lost it later that year after Manning and Co swept into Tobago,
sat down with the Assembly and promised greater autonomy for Tobago via new
legislation.
But
his payback was closer than anyone could divine.
The
very day he was going to give the Government a piece of his mind in Parliament,
Manning had a better idea. He called
a snap poll.
The
results were the beginning of today’s constitutional crisis.
Robinson
moved from near obscurity back to centre-stage with the mythical 17-17-2 election
result.
The
knave was going to become the kingmaker.
Robinson
threw in his lot with Panday – “two headstrong men”, according to a former
government colleague of both men.
Robinson
agreed to be called Minister Extraordinaire, with responsibility for Tobago.
He became the architect of a new and improved THA Act within his first
year in office.
With
that out of the way, there was talk in November 1996 that he wanted to be
President.
“No,
not really,” was his reply when asked whether he was interested in the post.
Three
months later he was elected President.
Again,
his penchant for setting precedents. Tongues
wagged at the election of this consummate politician to the presidency.
This must be a pay-of for favours rendered.
By ascension to the highest office in the land he had gone one up on
his former Oxford mate.
But
the former NAR minister does not feel that Robinson is taking a political
position in the current impasse.
“He
is merely standing on the formality to be observed in dealing with the President,”
he said.
The
former minister said he did not think that Robinson was so naďve to say to
Panday; “I come from Tobago and I don’t think you can revoke these appointments.”
The
President expects the Prime Minister to consult and meet with him and this
issue has given him an opportunity to say to Panday: “This [consultation]
hasn’t happened since September. You
have a responsibility to extend certain courtesies.” He allowed the judiciary thing to slip, but he is now saying this
is one too many.”
Robinson
takes his honour very seriously and is a stickler for protocol.
The
former minister recalled that when the NAR was in government, ambassadors
developed the habit of regularly calling on ministers directly. He said when Robinson found out he insisted
that the proper thing was for such visits to be arranged by the heads of missions
via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“He
wasn’t saying we should not meet with them, he was simply insisting that the
proper procedure should be used.”
Shortly
after Robinson became President he wanted to visit Tobago, but the Tobago
PNM objected because of his possible influence on the by-election campaign
that was taking place then to fill the Tobago East seat.
Robinson
telephoned not the leader of the PNM in Tobago but the Minority Leader in
the THA – McKenzie, his fellow early bird.
He told him he would postpone his visit.
When
he decided that he had to go to Tobago in late April 1997 after an earthquake
struck the island, he made sure to inform McKenzie and Nicholson as a matter
of courtesy, even as both were being sidelined by the THA.
His
decision to put pen to paper in the current impasse also a gesture of formality
and intended to have a restraining influence – so far lost on Panday.
On
the current standoff, the former NAR minister said: “I expect the Prime Minister
to flex his muscles. He would not
want to seem to be giving in to the President. He will politicize the issue and try to bait Robinson to come out
and have a public exchange. His statements
that the Commission of Enquiry (into the judiciary) will go on are examples
of this.”
But
Panday’s not likely to catch Robinson.
“A
wise head a still tongue keeps,” Robinson often said when pressed to comment
on the actions of the coalition government he helped form.
McKenzie
says of him: “He knows when to get in and how to get out.”
The
thing most likely to trip up Robinson now would be ill health, from which
he has made yet another remarkable recovery.
His current fighting form is a far cry from the forlorn figure who
fainted away at the Independence Day parade in 1997. It was later discovered that he had three clogged arteries, which
left unattended, would lead to a heart attack.
So, in February 1998 a 71-year-old Robinson had heart surgery at Mt
Hope.
He
looked a shadow of his former self after that – frail, eyesight failing, he
needed a guiding hand and voice whenever he stood up.
He
had confessed two years earlier that he had glaucoma and was hearing impaired.
Even
though he insisted he was fine, the cracks were evident at a news conference
he held in July 1998 to say he’d be back in office soon. Almost every question asked by the media had to be repeated to him
by his aide-de-camp Anthony Phillips-Spencer or private secretary Kathleen
Boswell-Inniss. His normally fluent
speech came haltingly instead.
But
he’s bounced back from that too, looking and sounding more like the old ANR.
In
March last year, he was interviewed by the Sunday Express on the International
Criminal Court.
He
covered 40 years of history flawlessly, remembering dates, names, and events.
“We
have to keep up with him,” a member of his staff said.
The
letters Robinson sent to Panday over the last two weeks also show a fine mind.
Panday’s
the one not smiling now. The kingmaker
is reaching for the crown.
Robinson
remembers Panday’s promise, during the euphoria of November 1995, that “the
Tobago question will be settled once and for all” during this administration,
and that Tobago will walk “hand in hand” with Trinidad.
The
euphoria has evaporated but Robinson remembers. And, he doesn’t intend to let Panday forget it.