Lionel Coker: ILP membership 2500 in Tobago

Lionel Coker interim Tobago Regional Coordinator
for the Indepedent Liberal Party (ILP)

2,500 PEOPLE in Tobago have now registered as members of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP).

The figures were released at the party’s first Tobago press conference on Wednesday, where the interim Tobago Regional Coordinator, Lionel Coker outlined the plans of the party.

“In the short term, we are in the process of preparing to set up party groups across the island as they prepare for their internal elections as well as looking into the possibility of setting up office in the eastern end of the island. In the medium term, they intend to launch a mass mobilisation and education exercise among young people in particular, who presently do not see the need to be a part of the political process, while in the long term, the party intends to use the new awareness to examine the power structure on the island with a view of empowering individuals to retake the unfettered power that they would have given to their elected representatives by setting the stage for the introduction of genuine participatory democracy in every stratum across the political landscape by 2015 and beyond,” he explained.

Coker continued that the ILP is open for business and is welcoming suggestions from supporters and well-wishers on the island on any issue that would assist in the forward movement of the party. 

“As far as we are concerned, no idea is stupid, no opinion is stupid, all your views are welcomed,” stated Coker.

He explained that the ILP sees people as people as there is no such thing as high profile or low profile member, everyone is equal. 

Coker said that the ILP is committed to full autonomy for Tobago and, as a result, a Tobago Regional Council Assembly has been created to run the affairs of the ILP on the island.

Lionel Coker Applies to Warner's ILP: ‘TOP power struggle led me to resign’

Lionel Coker, Former Chairman of the TOP

Former chairman of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) Lionel Coker yesterday confirmed he has applied to join the Indepen­dent Liberal Party (ILP) led by Jack Warner.

In a telephone interview, Coker said he initially intended to “relax” after his resignation from the TOP on August 6, but as a “political animal” he was unable to do so.

“This wasn’t an overnight decision. I thought long and hard about this,” he said.

Coker said he and Warner had a good relationship and he knew Warner was “passionate about Tobago”.

He said his frustration with the “internal power struggle” within the TOP prompted his resignation.

“I am a founding member of the TOP and to see people come and want to mash it up is too frustrating,” he said.

Coker described himself as a “worker” and said he was known throughout the length and breadth of Tobago because he walked the streets with the people.

“Since it was reported that I resigned from TOP and signalled that I was going to join the ILP, my phone has not stopped ringing, in a good way,” he said.

In a media release, Coker said his decision to move to the ILP “was welcomed and understood by many within the said TOP” who knew and understood his level of contribution to the organisation.

“I never for one moment intended to treat information concerning my political future as classified information.

“However, I chose to give it the serious thought that it deserved, whilst I sought clarification from the ILP leadership on a few concerns that I had.

“The main concern related to the level of autonomy of the Tobago Arm/Region of the ILP within the context of the ILP being a national party. I also sought assurance that this would be spelt out clearly in the constitution of the ILP.

“With my concerns been addressed, I felt comfortable to submit my application for membership,” he said.

Coker also said an ILP office would be opening shortly at Milford Road in Tobago.

Warner, who yesterday confirmed the application, said the ILP executive would meet today to discuss Coker’s application and admittance to the “growing party”

Source:trinidadexpress

TOP Chairman Resigns

Chairman of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP), Lionel Coker, has  resigned from the party.

In his resignation letter dated August 6,  Coker wrote:

“I take this opportunity to inform the general public of my resignation as chairman and also as member of the Tobago Organisation of the People as of Friday 2nd August, 2013. It was indeed an honour to be of service to the organisation especially from inception, as party organiser for three years and finally as party chairman over the last year.

“As I take my departure, I do extend best wishes to the TOP as it seeks to overcome its immediate as well as future challenges.”

 While TOP leader Ashworth Jack said Coker’s resignation was because of personal attacks, when contacted, he (Coker) said he did not wish to state his reason for resigning. He said, however, that  he worked hard to build the TOP party to where it is today.

 Coker told the Express he had held back his resignation since July 24 but chose yesterday to officially confirm his decision. His resignation comes in the midst of rumblings within the party with several members calling for the resignation of the TOP executive.

On July 10, several members of the TOP called for the postponement of the July 14 proposed annual conference by the party for a second time, and pressed the executive to address the reform of the party’s constitution and all other urgent issues. The conference was later postponed. 

Jack, when contacted yesterday on the resignation of Coker, said he (Coker) was a hardworking man and wished him the best in his future endeavours. 

“Mr Coker was under personal attack by several members within the TOP,” Jack said. 

Questioned as to whether the TOP would join Jack Warner’s Independent Liberal Party (IPL), Jack said he would be foolhardy to do such. He said if such a move should happen, the TOP membership would decide on the best way forward. 

Asked for his perspective on the matter, economist Dr Vanus James called for the resignation of TOP leader Jack, not only in light of Coker’s resignation but said he should have resigned and left office when the TOP lost the January 21 THA election. 

“From day one this was always the problem. I myself have had many conversations with Mr (Ashworth) Jack. The party has to be led in a different direction than one where you just want to win office, because when you win office you still have to make policy, as the PNM is finding out today,” James said. 

James said what the TOP is going through is similar to the whipping the People’s Partnership Government and the PNM got in the recent keenly contested Chaguanas West by-election.

“The failings of all the parties, including the PNM, don’t forget, and the People’s Partnership as Warner’s victory has proven, is the failure to get those institutions to work, and you could ask of Mr Warner’s victory, is that, how do you get the institutions of Government to work for our people in such a way that I don’t need to go to the representative to get benefits,” he said. 

Source:trinidadexpress

Legal Actions Against TOP's Internal Election

Leader of the Tobago Oragnisation of the People
Ashworth Jack

It was Hochoy Charles in 2010 who accused the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) of rigging their internal elections to favour certain candidates. Now once again, mere days away from their internal election their executive has been faced with a barrage of legal pre-action letters. 

A news clipping carried by other media indicated that the TOP has been issued a pre-action  protocol  letter which calls for tomorrow’s  internal TOP elections to be stopped. 

Chairman Trevor Gardiner and secretary Gladstone Solomon of the TOP Hope/John Dial Action Group in a letter dated May 31st gave instructions to attorneys Bijili Lalla and Om Lalla to postpone the elections. 

The pre-action protocol letter stated: “We are instructed to request you to give an undertaking to postpone the election carded for Sunday 2nd June 2013, until the constitution is amended to provide for the ‘one man one vote’ system and all members are permitted to participate in the process. The procedural irregularity and illegal act of holding the election in the proposed manner is detrimental to the TOP and its credibility.” The letter also  stated: “Should you fail to accede to our request, we will have no alternative but to seek legal redress from the High Court for injunctive relief to stay the said election.”

TOP was then given 24 hours to communicate on the way forward, and copies of the letter were  also sent to political leader of the TOP Ashworth Jack, chairperson of the elections committee Cherry Ann Rollocks-Hackett and TOP party chairman Lionel Coker. 

Only recently Justice Minister and chairman of the TOP’s constitutional amendment committee Christlyn Moore, in a letter dated May 21st to the party, expressed her reservations about Sunday’s election. 

Her letter requested: “That the election of the executive carded for 2nd June be aborted.”

In addition, TOP member Anslem Richards has also threatened legal action against the party. Richards who contested the Tobago House of Assembly election for Roxborough /Delaford on January 21, was rejected as a contestant for the position of chairman by the party citing  his financial standing within the TOP.

A portion of Richards letter which was written on May 31st states:

“Failure to honour my rights of membership as guaranteed under the constitution of the TOP will result in legal proceedings being instituted.” 

Efforts by some media groups to contact Jack and Coker proved to be futile, and calls to their mobile phones were not returned.

Confident Toppin takes on Coker

Vernella Allyne Toppin

Tobago-East Representative Vernella Alleyne Toppin is not yet ready to ride out into the political sunset. In fact, the prominent politician is indicating that she is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the Tobago Organisation of the People continues to be relevant to the people of Tobago. Toppin has mounted a challenge against the incumbent chairman of the party, Lionel Coker. The party holds its internal election on June 1. She is backed by a team of individuals, even though the former university lecturer would not define it as a slate. Toppin’s challenge to Coker comes at a time when some within the party are calling for a total revamp of the party’s executive following the crushing defeat by the party, which was once poised the dominate the political landscape in Tobago.

Asked about her basis for running for the arduous task of the main administrative officer in the party, Toppin said it was the necessary at this time. Speaking with Tobago News in an exclusive interview on her porch at her residence in Plantations, she explained that when the results were announced on January 21, she was shocked at the outcome and immediately went into investigative mode to determine from the electorate, the reasons why the party lost so significantly. 

The research, she said, showed that the loss by the party was linked to a number of reasons, pointing to the fact that their strategies had not covered all of the bases and therefore the party had not presented the best strategy. “There were weaknesses,” she insisted. Toppin said she had suggested after the election, that everyone on the Executive should vacate their position and leave it up to the members to elect a new executive to lead the party.

“I decided that I would throw my lot in by holding a position of influence where I can make a difference; my ideas, my strengths, my abilities can be further utilised by the party in order to support the party in a stronger way,” Toppin said. She maintained that it was the action groups of the party who selected and nomination the members of her team in the election.

Toppin told Tobago News, she found the Executive was not up to the task that we was before it. “I thought that all along, I thought that more than a year now,” she remarked. It was on this premise that she agreed to lead a team to ‘give the party a better chance moving forward’.

Toppin, who presently holds the position of Minister in the Ministry of the People and Social Development, expressed confidence that she can be a productive party chairman. “I think I have the ability to be party chairman and to be very productive and to be very decisive and insightful and able to carry the burden,” Toppin said.

Toppin’s relationship with political leader Ashworth Jack has always been questioned, with some speculating that this turbulent relationship would have been the basis of the prime minister’s decision to move her from the Ministry of Tobago Development. The Member of Parliament however, adamantly disagreed with this perspective. “I have never had a bad relationship with the leader of the TOP.

I have always supported him. I have never disrespected him or purported to prefer that he would not be the leader,” the minister reiterated. “Our leader chooses his alliances, so it’s not that we have an antagonistic relationship, we have a leader/subordinate relationship,” she continued. As for her association with Coker, Toppin described it as ‘a working relationship’.

“We have hard work ahead of us. We just have to bring all our strengths together to come up with winning strategies. There are areas in Tobago that we can concentrate on to make a huge impact. We are poised to dominate,” she stated.

She is optimistic that she is the better individual for the job, touting her experience in parliament, locally and internationally. “I can articulate the policies, programmes and practices of the TOP. I am a Member of Parliament. I have an international experience dealing with people and negotiating. I have national and regional experience, 18 years as a university lecturer and over 40 years as a teacher. I am a politician in the true sense of the word. I can match my counterparts in Trinidad, I know I can match them academically and other wise. This should increase my appeal to the membership,” she articulated.

Source:Tobagonews

THA Officials: TOP chairman Should Apologise for Prostitution Remarks

Claudia Groome Duke,
Secretary for health and Social Services

Secretary for Health and Social Services Claudia Groome–Duke has denied claims that female Cepep employees assigned to her division have resorted to prostitution because of late payment of their salaries by the Tobago House of Assembly. On Tuesday, Lionel Coker, chairman of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) indicated that female Cepep workers assigned to the various divisions within the THA, including Cepep, were forced to turn to desperate measures because they were not paid salaries for four fortnights.

Speaking at the post-executive council news conference on Wednesday, Groome–Duke described the statement as “unfortunate.” She said the comment was made at a time when efforts are being made to eradicate domestic violence and abuse against women. She is therefore asking Coker to retract the statement and apologise.

“We really want to ask him to take back that statement because we all know our women in Tobago,” Groome–Duke said. “Our women in terms of their independence, their resilience, their dignity no matter what they go through in terms of their resilience, our women would stand up for their rights and get ahead. “I therefore see it as defiling the integrity of all women to say that if they are not being paid they would resort to prostitution.”

She said while the Cepep in Tobago went through a period of challenges after a restructuring process and an increase of the labour force in mid-2012, the process has since been computerised and workers are being paid promptly. “Over the past couple of months they have been paid on time and I want to note soon after the increase of the Cepep workers, they were doing those sheets manually and when there is a correction it holds up the sheets and create some challenges,” she said.

“They have now initiated a mechanism electronically and they have been working and creating this environment, giving their all and paying people on time.” 

Source:Guardian