Listeners got a glimpse of the good governance that Tobagonians will enjoy when the Progressive Democratic Patriots(PDP) wins the December 6 Tobago House of Assembly(THA) elections. Painting that picture at Wednesday’s “Leh We Fix Dis” election campaign was the PDP Leader, Watson Duke, who was the last speaker at the hour-long meeting.
According to Duke, the PDP will engage in participatory democracy and give Tobagonians a voice in the running of their island. He said: “To fix good governance we will have to allow each and every person in Tobago to become involved in governance. And when we say we are involving you, we are going to a simple model. That from the street level right up to the village level and then to the constituency level everybody will have a representative.” He went on to explain: “We are going to ensure every single street in Tobago whether is a dead-end street with a poor man living in it, he will be represented by himself. Every single street will have one representative representing the people of that street for the condition of that street. Every single village will have these street people representing them. And every single constituency will have every single person from every single street forming part of that constituency.”
On the podium, Duke also complained that certain decisions are made on the island without consulting the people or their representatives and singled out a decision to sell parcels of state land without consulting the PDP. Duke said, “We are in Government, we are not opposition. We have six seats and this side of the Government has not been consulted.” He said that the day of bad governance will end.
Using the difference of opinions between Dr. Faith B. Yisrael and himself, Duke drove home the point that the PDP represents the man on the street with some persons like Dr. B. Yisrael supporting vaccination and others like himself who did not. He said that he respected Dr. B Yisrael’s position and he did not see it as a conflict within the party. Duke noted that the PDP stance on vaccination is pro-choice and wanted persons to be informed to make the decisions themselves.
He also noted that when the PDP takes command of the THA, they will ensure that the segregation of schools between the vaccinated and unvaccinated will not be tolerated since the mandate of education falls under the THA. He said: “So if anybody going to school then everybody going to school. We are not going to partialize the thing at all and discriminate.”
He said that the PDP will ensure that the laws made in Trinidad will not be enforced in Tobago without first consulting Tobagonians.