Robinson, A. N. R.

December 16, 1926

Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson was born in Calder Hall, Tobago, to James Andrew and Isabella Muir Robinson. He grew up in Castara, a rural fishing village, and attended the Castara Methodist Primary School, where his father, a strict disciplinarian, was headmaster. As a child, Robinson played cricket and football and ran track, but he never made the school or village team in these sports. Instead, he excelled academically.

In 1938 Robinson won a Bowles Scholarship, which allowed him to attend Bishop's High School in Scarborough, Tobago, where he continued to excel academically. In 1944 he narrowly missed winning an Island Scholarship to a university, so he accepted a teaching position at Bishop's High School. After six months he left this post to become a second-class clerk in the Department of Public Works. This did not suit his ambitions, however, and he enrolled in the University of London's external program in Tobago. He graduated in 1951 with a Bachelor of Laws degree and was called to the bar of the Inner Temple. That same year, he entered St. John's College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics, and economics.

While at Oxford, Robinson was a member of the Oxford Union Society, and he won a number of prizes for his debating skills. He also established a friendship with a fellow debater, Robert K. Woetzel, and he took an interest in Woeztel's thesis on international law concerning the Nuremberg Trials. On the invitation of Woetzel, Robinson joined the Oxford Political Study Circle. He joined other student organizations and later became the president of the West Indian Students Society and secretary of the study circle. Among the other Caribbean students he met at Oxford was Tom Adams, who became prime minister of Barbados. Robinson also established close relationships with several fellow countrymen, including Eldon Warner, Max Ifill, and Doddridge Alleyne. Some of these individuals would later become his political allies. Robinson also participated in discussions on the foundation of the West Indies Federation, which was established in 1958 but lasted only four years.

Robinson returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1955 to practice law. Initially, Robinson's interest was in local politics, and he joined a group called the Scarborough Political Circle, a spin-off from his Oxford study circle. His interest in developing better social, political, and economic conditions seems to have focused at first on the place of Tobagonians within the twin-island colony of Trinidad and Tobago, but he soon linked this interest to the international arena. His first acquaintance with Eric Williams was at the Scarborough Political Circle, probably in 1955. This meeting would eventually lead Robinson to an active engagement in politics. He later attended a discussion group with John Donaldson, Elton Richardson, and W. J. Alexander at the Chancellor Street residence of Dr. Williams in Port of Spain. The group agreed to form a political party, with Williams as leader. Williams was to be introduced to the electorate through public lectures and other social events throughout the country. The principal venue was Woodford Square—renamed the "University of Woodford Square" by Williams. Robinson worked on the constitution of the party, and he thus became a founding member of the People's National Movement (PNM). After the establishment of the party, he served as its treasurer and deputy leader, and a large section of the citizenry saw him as heir apparent to Eric Williams.

As the PNM's spokesman for Tobago, Robinson was a candidate for Parliament in the 1956 general election. He was defeated, however, by A. P. T. "Fargo" James, a very popular "grassroots" politician. Robinson, fairly well known but new to politics, was portrayed by James as too "proud, too social, and too stuck up" to lead Tobagonians. In 1958, however, Robinson won the Tobago seat in the federal Parliament. He then had to deal with the disappointment of the withdrawal of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago from the West Indies Federation, which he had nurtured since his Oxford days. The federation completely collapsed the following year. However, Robinson won the Tobago seat in the House of Representatives in the election of 1961, which followed the granting of full self-government. He was appointed the minister of finance in the ruling PNM government of the newly independent state of Trinidad and Tobago in 1962.

Robinson inherited the daunting task of developing a financial system for the newly independent state. Unfortunately, his Finance Act of 1966 set off plans within the PNM to marginalize him because the act went against the interests of certain importers and businesspeople. The act sought to reform the tax system, particularly with regard to the export of foreign exchange earned in Trinidad and Tobago. The new tariff structure was a deliberate attempt to change a colonial economy to one suited to independence. Consequently, higher duties were imposed on imported goods in order to protect the local manufacturers. The politics surrounding the Finance Act is explained in his book, The Mechanics of Independence: Patterns of Political and Economic Transformation in Trinidad and Tobago (1971).

Robinson felt that the PNM failed to lead the country into real political and economic independence through sound economic structures and policies. He was also impatient with the failure of the party's leadership to insist on integrity in government, and he felt that the government had not changed much from its colonial predecessor. The result of the PNM's policies was an increase in government corruption, manifested in a system of patronage in the appointment of key personnel to head state enterprises. As a result, popular support for the PNM weakened.

By mid-1969, amid economic and social stresses, the dissatisfaction of students and laborers, and the activities of the Black Power movement, the PNM government was viewed by many as unresponsive and impotent. Increasingly critical of the government's handling of a Black Power–induced crisis, Robinson resigned from the PNM on April 13, 1970. He was accused of wanting to overthrow the government and of being involved in the Black Power movement, leading Williams to declare a state of emergency. Having resigned from the PNM, Robinson became the spokesman for reform.

Robinson's quest for political empowerment for all continued when he formed the Action Committee of Dedicated Citizens (ACDC). The group gradually evolved into a political party and struck an alliance with the traditional opposition party, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). The merger between the two groups broke down after the DLP became a spent force in 1971. The ACDC evolved into the Democratic Action Congress (DAC), which was viewed principally as a Tobago party, since Robinson had returned there to live. In 1976 Tobagonians rejected the PNM and elected DAC members Robinson and Dr. Winston Murray as their representatives. For the next four years, Robinson engaged in a political struggle with Williams for internal self-government for Tobago, which was finally realized in 1980. Robinson then resigned his seat in the House of Representatives to contest the first Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections. He was successful and became the assembly's first chair. The island, which had launched his political career twenty-two years earlier, now had his full attention. It was in Tobago that Robinson again developed a political base from which he would compete with, and eventually triumph over, the PNM.

Meanwhile, Robinson sought to build a multicultural and multiracial political party that was truly representative of the people of Trinidad and Tobago. He therefore joined with the leaders of the other main opposition parties to form the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR). Robinson's popularity made him the unquestioned leader of the NAR, which defeated the PNM in the 1986 elections, winning thirty-three seats to the PNM's three, and Robinson became the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Yet, in spite of the fact that he successfully restructured the economic foundations of the state, placing it on a path of growth, he lost the general elections of 1991 to Patrick Manning and the PNM. The principal reason for this loss was not the painful economic adjustments he instituted, but the issue of race, as the NAR government was viewed as a marriage of convenience rather than an alliance of genuine unity between the African and East Indian groups. Before leaving office in 1991, Robinson became the victim of an attempted coup led by Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, a black Muslim leader. Robinson was held hostage for six days, along with other members of the government, but he called for the armed forces to defy the insurgents and "attack with full force." He was finally released by the insurgents who, respecting his bravery, carried him triumphantly out of the parliamentary building. While losing the 1991 elections decisively, Robinson won his seat in Tobago and remained in Parliament.

Contrary to popular opinion, Robinson's defeat did not lead to his political demise, for the 1995 general elections brought him back into national prominence. In this election, the United National Congress (UNC) and the PNM were tied, with seventeen seats each. It was left to Robinson, with the two Tobago DAC seats, to decide which party he would support to form the new government. By supporting the UNC, Robinson made history by creating the first "Indian" government of Trinidad and Tobago, and he selected Basdeo Panday as prime minister.

Robinson was appointed president of Trinidad and Tobago in 1997, and he served in that post until March 2003. He has since retired from politics, but he is still viewed as the country's most well-known, statesmanlike, enigmatic, and misunderstood figure. He has certainly had the longest, and one of the most memorable, political careers in Trinidad and Tobago.

See also Black Power Movement; James, A. P. T.; International Relations of the Anglophone Caribbean; Manning, Patrick; Peoples National Movement; Williams, Eric; Woodford Square

Bibliography

Kublalsingh, Hayden H. "The Political Life of Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson, 1956–1986: A Historical Perspective." UC 300 Project, April 22, 1991. West Indian Library, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad.

Pantin, Raoul. Black Power Day: The 1970 February Revolution. Trinidad and Tobago: Hatuey Productions, 1990.

Robinson, A. N. R. The Mechanics of Independence: Patterns of Political and Economic Transformation in Trinidad and Tobago. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1971.

Robinson, A. N. R. Caribbean Man: Speeches from a Political Career. Edited and introduced by Gregory Shaw. Trinidad and Tobago: Inprint Publications, 1986.

Ryan, Selwyn D. Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago: A Study of Decolonization in a Multiracial Society. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 1972.

Ryan, Selwyn D. The Politics of Succession: A Study of Parties and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago: University of the West Indies, 1978.

Ryan, Selwyn D. The Confused Electorate: A Study of Political Attitudes and Opinions in Trinidad and Tobago. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of the West Indies, 1979.

Ryan, Selwyn D. The Disillusioned Electorate: The Politics of Succession in Trinidad and Tobago. Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: Inprint Caribbean, 1989.

Sampson, Ingrid Damian. "A History of the Foreign Policy of Trinidad and Tobago, 1962–1986: A Question of Diplomacy of a Small State." UC 300 Project, April 22, 1991. West Indian Library, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad.

selwyn h. h. carrington (2005)

fiona ann taylor (2005)