You can't be PM, Chief Secretary

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

“YOU can’t be Chief Secretary and Prime Minister at the same time.”

This was Tobago West MP Shamfa Cudjoe's message to Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Minority Leader and Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) leader Watson Duke.

Duke announced his intention last week to scale down his duties as Public Services Association president to focus on his political ambitions. He said he wants to be prime minister.

He told Newsday a week ago that he wants some rich person to finance him as he tries to become PM, saying he had no money to campaign and uses his salaries as an assemblyman and PSA president to pay bills from his last campaign for a seat in the THA and to help people.

But speaking to Peoples National Movement (PNM) supporters at the Whim community centre on Tuesday night, Cudjoe said: “It’s not possible, so I want to ask you to make up your mind. You can’t be Chief Secretary and Prime Minister at the same time. This is about numbers, this is about getting the majority votes. So you can’t win two seats and win the government, and you better believe you ent winning them two seats here.”

She added: “We have an Opposition – dysfunctional, disorganised, disenchanted, disgusting – we have an Opposition who just says no and opposes everything for opposition sake. And I continue to ask, what is your alternative? What is your plan?”

Cudjoe said the PNM’s 63-year history was unmatched.

“You’re looking at 63 years of experience, 63 years of discipline, 63 years of order, 63 years of integrity, 63 years of decency, 63 years of respecting law and order, 63 years of strong, proper behaviour in public life, and you’re asking me to walk a different way or to walk a different direction with you? To take me where? To do what, behind who and to partner in Trinidad with whom?”

She called on the PDP to bring a proper structure to politics in Tobago.

“I see they are now shooting out little one-paragraph vague statements. I am glad that I got you to caucus, I am glad the People’s National Movement got you to meet. I am glad the People’s National Movement got you to scribble down something on a piece of paper.

"I hope that you, the PDP – and I call you by name – would meet, would form party groups, would develop a youth league, would develop a women’s league, would review your constitution, would do something substantial in your community for the people of Tobago, because in and out of power, the People’s National Movement leads and we contribute to the development of this country in and out of power.”