Tobago's three premature baby parties

THE EDITOR: The more prematurely born to face life on political earth, the more serious the distinct possibility of weakness, infection and political death. Take for instance the three weak baby political parties that will be vying for votes in the next Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections.

The last record of how many citizens reside in Tobago says 60,735, as of 2011. One can assume there would not be super heavy changes on the island. So let us leave that figure for political contemplation.

There are three new babies and one big political child living in Tobago.

The Tobago People's Party (TPP) leader, Farley Chavez Augustine who is the current Chief Secretary, the Progressive Democratic Patriots whose leader is Watson Duke, and the Innovative Democratic Alliance, whose leader is Dr Denise Tsoi-afatt Angus.

The big kid on the block is the People's National Movement (PNM) led by former chief secretary Ancil Dennis.

Do you have to be a Tobagonian in order to understand their politics? No. Why? Because the biggest child, the PNM is quietly waiting in the wings to take over Tobago's governance, once again. Plain talk is also not bad manners in Tobago.

There can never, ever be another 14-1 victory for anybody. Why? Because the leaders of the TPP, PDP and IDA all want to be chief secretary and they are not budging. It is possible that in the next THA elections, these three small parties will split the votes, bringing the PNM back into power.

Am I being farse and out of place? No! The PNM can already walk, talk and dress itself. As I said, ready and waiting.

The TPP has questions to answer regarding the baby-like handling of THA funding. Unemployment has gone up.

The PDP is determined to take back the reins of power ceded to Farley who used to be a PDP member, until a fight over the milk bottle and toys.

And, of course, there is the IDA leader who fancies herself as the best thing since PNM sliced bread, which she used to nibble on long ago.

There was a low voter turnout last time around. With everybody related to each other, friends from school days or married to each other, Tobago is ripe to change political parties.

No more 14-1 statistics. So, who you voting for?

LYNETTE JOSEPH

Diego Martin