Arthur NR Robinson

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Arthur NR Robinson

Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson TC (born December 16, 1926 in Calder Hall, † April 9, 2014 in Port of Spain ) was a politician from Trinidad and Tobago . From 1986 to 1991 he was Prime Minister and from 1997 to 2003 President of his home country.

Life

Early years

Robinson studied law and earned a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of London and a Master of Arts (MA) . He then worked as a lawyer in Tobago.

politics

Robinson was originally a member of Prime Minister Eric Eustace Williams ' People's National Movement (PNM) party and became treasurer in 1956. From 1958 to 1961 he was a member of the Federal Parliament and from 1961 to 1971 and from 1976 to 1980 a member of the House of Representatives for the constituency of East Tobago. In 1961 Prime Minister Williams appointed him Treasury Secretary in his cabinet. In 1967 he was appointed Foreign Minister. He held this office until 1970.

To protest against the racial politics of Williams, he left the PNM in 1970 and first founded the Action Committee of Democratic Citizens (ACDC) with which he and the opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) called for an unsuccessful election boycott in 1971 . After the election, Robinson founded the Democratic Action Congress (DAC), which won the two parliamentary seats for Tobago in the House of Representatives in the 1976 and 1981 elections. From 1971 to 1986 he was chairman of the DAC. From 1980 to 1986 he was chairman of the Tobago meeting house. Before the 1981 election, he also formed the opposition alliance National Alliance for Reconstruction with the United Labor Front (ULF) of Basdeo Panday , the Tapia House Movement (THM) under Lloyd Best and the Organization for National Reconstruction (ONR) of Karl Hudson-Phillips (NAR). However, this opposition alliance was defeated in the parliamentary elections in November 1981 by the PNM under Prime Minister George Michael Chambers . However, the NAR emerged victorious from the local elections in 1983. In 1986 the NAR electoral alliance was established as a party. Robinson became the first chairman (until 1992). From 1986 to 2001, the NAR held the majority in the meeting house on Tobago Island.

With Robinson as the top candidate, the NAR won the general election in December 1986 with 66% of the vote and won 33 out of 36 seats; only 3 seats remain for the PNM. On December 18, 1986, Robinson succeeded George Michael Chambers as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

In an attempted coup by Muslim rebels of the “Jamaat al Muslimeen” under Bilaall Abdullah in 1990, Prime Minister Robinson and several ministers were held hostage for six days at gunpoint in the parliament building. During the liberation by units of the army Robinson was injured by the hostage takers.

After the parliamentary election of 1991 the NAR lost the majority and on December 18, 1991 Robinson was replaced as Prime Minister by the chairman of the PNM Patrick Manning . On November 9, 1995, Prime Minister Basdeo Panday appointed him Minister for Special Tasks and Affairs of Tobago. Robinson remained in this office until he was elected president.

In 1997, Robinson ran for the office of President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Not only was he the first active politician to run for that office, but he was also the first president to run an opponent. On March 19, 1997, he became President as successor to Noor Hassanali . He held this office until his replacement by George Maxwell Richards on March 17, 2003.

Activities after the end of the political career

On November 30, 2006, he was elected to succeed Óscar Arias Sánchez as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Victim Trust Fund (ICC). His term of office ended in 2009.

Robinson spent the last years of his life on the family estate in Ellerslie Park . After several months of illness, he died of kidney failure on April 9, 2014 in St. Clair Medical Hospital in Port of Spain.

Awards

Arthur Robinson has also received numerous other awards, particularly in the field of law, and honorary doctorates . On May 19, 2011, Crown Point Airport on Tobago Island was renamed ANR Robinson International Airport .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ICC-CPI.int: Second election of members of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims. Retrieved April 2, 2018 . (PDF, 52 kB)
  2. ↑ Richard Lord: Raving tributes as Robinson passes on . In: Trinidad Guardian . April 9, 2014.
  3. ↑ TobagoAirport.com: Crown Point International Airport. Retrieved April 2, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Robinson, Arthur NR
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Robinson, Arthur Napoleon Raymond (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Trinidadian Prime Minister
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Calder Hall (Trinidad and Tobago)
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 2014
Place of death Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago)