Eric WilliamsEssay Preview: Eric WilliamsReport this essayEric WilliamsAmongst the various historical figures in the history of Trinidad and Tobago, one man that greatly stands out from the rest is Dr. Eric Eustace Williams. Dr. Williams was born on September 25, 1911 and died one March 29, 1981. He is best known as the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He career in politics began in 1956. He remained in office until his death in 1981. Aside from being a politician he was also a noted Caribbean historian.
Dr. Williams was the son of Henry and Elisa Williams (Race and History, Online)His father was a Postal worker and a mother was a descendant of the FrenchCreole elite (Wikipedia, Online). It was not noted if he has any siblings. Nonetheless much emphasis has been placed on his academic and political life. In addition much has been said about his work towards society.
According to Wikipedia, Dr. Williams was educated at Queens Royal College in Port of Spain, where he excelled at academics and football Wikipedia, Online). He the recipient of scholarship in 1932 which helped fund his time at Oxford University. This is where he received his doctorate in 1938. His doctoral thesis was titled The Economic Aspect of the West Indian Slave Trade and Slavery (Wikipedia, Online).
By 1939 Dr. Williams accepted a position at Howard University, becoming a full professor by 1947. Initially, he became an assistant professor of social and political sciences and organized several courses; especially a humanities course for which he developed a three-volume work called Documents Illustrating the Development of Civilization (Raceand History, Online). While at Howard, in 1944, Williams began to work as a consultant to the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, a body set up after the war to study the future of the region (Race and History, Online). In 1948, he left Howard to head the Research Branch of the Caribbean Commission.
In the midst of all that, in 1948, Dr.Williams returned to Trinidad as the Commissions Deputy Chairman of the Caribbean Research Council (Wikipedia, Online). In Trinidad Williams delivered a series of educational lectures for which he became famous (Wikipedia, Online). In 1955 after disagreements between Williams and the Commission, he resigned from the Commission in protest against its crypto-colonialist policies (Race and History, Online)
Continuing with Dr. Williams many deeds and accomplishments, it was stated that on January 15, 1956 Williams introduced his own political party, which was know as the Peoples National Movement. Until this time his campaign of lectures had been carried out under the auspices of the Political Education Movement (PEM) a branch of the Teachers Education and Cultural Association, a group which had been founded in the 1940s as an alternative to the official teachers union (Wikipedia, Online).
The PNMs first document was its constitution. Unlike the other political parties of the time, the PNM was a highly organized, hierarchical body (Wikipedia, Online). Its second document was The Peoples Charter in which the party strove to separate itself from the transitory political assemblages which had thus far been the norm in Trinidadian politics (Wikipedia, Online).In elections held eight months later, on September 24, the PNM won 13 of the 24 elected seats in the Legislative Council, defeating 6 of the 16 incumbents running for re-election. Although the PNM did not secure a majority in the 31-member Legislative Council,Williams was able to convince the Secretary of State for the Colonies to allow him to name the five appointed members of the council (despite the opposition of the Governor Sir Edward Betham Beetham)(Wikipedia, Online). This gave him a clear majority in the Legislative Council. Williams was thus elected Chief Minister and was also able to get all seven of his ministers elected.
The next step was to draft a new Constitution, and in June, with the support of the Government of Port Augusta, the draft was passed into law.
An election is just another means of forming a government. A majority of the people have made their will known to them by their votes, and have expressed their opinion by voting on behalf of their constituents. Such elections are a political process which must be managed at the level of the people, through elected representatives, on behalf of the citizens, by a popular vote.
I also believe a successful elections in New South Wales are a good opportunity to try and build a strong community in a region that has long been regarded as the home of our national leaders. My community, my country, I believe is the heart and heart of our nation. It is what is at stake when it comes to deciding the future of our own people. We have to ask a lot more than just who is Prime Minister of New South Wales. I’m not sure who the Governor John Tydman would choose to lead our nation.
In the new Constitution, the People Council will be elected (by an elector) to the Legislative Council.
The People Council will be empowered to make decisions and enact laws affecting the lives of those in their respective constituencies, not simply by virtue of their votes.
There are many concerns concerning the proposed election as well as many concerns regarding what constitutes an election of representatives. These are:
The People Council (the People’s Council) is in charge of governance of an estimated 60,000 people that are part of the South Queensland population. In the current Parliament (1906) the People’s Council elected only four of the 10 elected Ministers of Parliament, which was a low number in any year (Wikipedia, Online). The majority of the seats for the People’s Council (including Port Augusta) were held by the Premier and State Government (in 2008). In the recent Constituent Assembly election (in 2011) there were more than 1,000 elected mayors and at least 300 elected State and Federal Government Ministers (Table 2). Only one person is currently seated that may be considered to be an elected Representative in the State and Federal legislatures.
The Government of Port Augusta (which includes Port Augusta, Augusta South, Port Augusta North and Tasmania) has been elected to Parliament (In 2002) and the Government of Port Augusta (which includes Macclesfield, Macclesfield South, Victoria and Tasmania) has not. Port Augusta has now the most active (including the Port Augusta Supervisors Party) in the Parliament of New South Wales compared to the Government in 2001. The Government of Port Augusta is also the largest party (at about 10 seats) in the Assembly (in 2013 and 2014) but has not yet confirmed its decision.
We believe the People’s Council should be run by elected representatives on a proportional basis with no “one-vote-a-day” system to ensure equality between members who are members of different Parties.
In the current constitution, the People Council will be elected (by an elector) to the Legislative Council.
The People Council as a system of State Legislative Councils (that may or may not include State representatives) is an institution within the State which would make it an elected body by virtue of their seat in the State Government but which can itself be deemed to be a State Legislative Council if it includes an elected member of that State.
These changes are intended to make clear to members of the electorate that they are in a new democracy and are not members of the New South Wales Parliament. In a new election process elections are to be held in
The next step was to draft a new Constitution, and in June, with the support of the Government of Port Augusta, the draft was passed into law.
An election is just another means of forming a government. A majority of the people have made their will known to them by their votes, and have expressed their opinion by voting on behalf of their constituents. Such elections are a political process which must be managed at the level of the people, through elected representatives, on behalf of the citizens, by a popular vote.
I also believe a successful elections in New South Wales are a good opportunity to try and build a strong community in a region that has long been regarded as the home of our national leaders. My community, my country, I believe is the heart and heart of our nation. It is what is at stake when it comes to deciding the future of our own people. We have to ask a lot more than just who is Prime Minister of New South Wales. I’m not sure who the Governor John Tydman would choose to lead our nation.
In the new Constitution, the People Council will be elected (by an elector) to the Legislative Council.
The People Council will be empowered to make decisions and enact laws affecting the lives of those in their respective constituencies, not simply by virtue of their votes.
There are many concerns concerning the proposed election as well as many concerns regarding what constitutes an election of representatives. These are:
The People Council (the People’s Council) is in charge of governance of an estimated 60,000 people that are part of the South Queensland population. In the current Parliament (1906) the People’s Council elected only four of the 10 elected Ministers of Parliament, which was a low number in any year (Wikipedia, Online). The majority of the seats for the People’s Council (including Port Augusta) were held by the Premier and State Government (in 2008). In the recent Constituent Assembly election (in 2011) there were more than 1,000 elected mayors and at least 300 elected State and Federal Government Ministers (Table 2). Only one person is currently seated that may be considered to be an elected Representative in the State and Federal legislatures.
The Government of Port Augusta (which includes Port Augusta, Augusta South, Port Augusta North and Tasmania) has been elected to Parliament (In 2002) and the Government of Port Augusta (which includes Macclesfield, Macclesfield South, Victoria and Tasmania) has not. Port Augusta has now the most active (including the Port Augusta Supervisors Party) in the Parliament of New South Wales compared to the Government in 2001. The Government of Port Augusta is also the largest party (at about 10 seats) in the Assembly (in 2013 and 2014) but has not yet confirmed its decision.
We believe the People’s Council should be run by elected representatives on a proportional basis with no “one-vote-a-day” system to ensure equality between members who are members of different Parties.
In the current constitution, the People Council will be elected (by an elector) to the Legislative Council.
The People Council as a system of State Legislative Councils (that may or may not include State representatives) is an institution within the State which would make it an elected body by virtue of their seat in the State Government but which can itself be deemed to be a State Legislative Council if it includes an elected member of that State.
These changes are intended to make clear to members of the electorate that they are in a new democracy and are not members of the New South Wales Parliament. In a new election process elections are to be held in
In the post-war mood of decolonization, the decision was made to create an independent West Indies Federation out of the British West Indies. British Guiana (now Guyana) and British Honduras (now Belize) chose to opt out of the Federation, leaving Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago as the dominant players. Most political parties in the various territories aligned themselves into one of two Federal political parties, which was either the West Indies Federal Labour Party (led by Norman Manley) and the Democratic Labour Party (led by his cousin, Sir Alexander Bustamante). The PNM affiliated with the former, while several of opposition parties (the Peoples Democratic Party, the Trinidad Labour Party and the Party of Political Progress Groups) aligned themselves with the DLP, and soon merged to form the Democratic Labour Party of Trinidad and Tobago (Wikipedia, Online).
The DLP victory in the 1958 Federal Elections and subsequent poor showing by the PNM in the 1959 County Council Elections soured Williams on the Federation. Lord Hailes (Governor-General of the Federation) also over-ruled two PNM nominations to the Federal Senate in order to balance a disproportionately WIFLP-dominated Senate. When Bustamante withdrew Jamaica from the Federation, this left Trinidad and Tobago in the untenable position of having to provide 75% of the Federal budget while having less than half the seats in the Federal government. In a famous speech, Williams declared one from ten leaves nought. Following the adoption of a resolution to that effect by the PNM General Council on January 15, 1962, Williams withdrew Trinidad and Tobago from the West Indies Federation. This action led the British government to dissolve the Federation (Wikipedia, Online).
PNM had introduced the Representation of the People Billin 1961. This Bill was served the purpose of modernizing the electoral system. It did this by instituting permanent registration of voters, identification cards, voting machines and revised electoral boundaries (Wikipedia, Online). These changes were seen by the DLP as an attempt to disenfranchise illiterate rural Indo-Trinidadians through intimidation, to rig the elections through the use of voting machines, to allow Afro-Caribbean immigrants from other islands to vote, and to gerrymander the boundaries to ensure victory by the PNM (Wikipedia, Online). Opponents of the PNM claimed to have evidence that proved that these allegations were true. This occurred when the A.N.R. Robinson was declared winner of the Tobago seat in 1961 with more votes than there were registered voters, and in the fact that the PNM was able to win every subsequent election until the 1980 Tobago House of Assembly Elections (Wikipedia, Online).
The 1961 elections gave the PNM 57% of the votes and 20 of the 30 seats. This two-thirds majority allowed them to draft the Independence Constitution