Duke promises to end Tobago 'bondage'

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

The Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) will go into full election mode after the party launch on October 27.

So said party leader Watson Duke as he addressed the media during Wednesday’s minority council bi-monthly media briefing in Scarborough.

Duke said: “Our campaign will be launched on October 27. It will be held at the Magdalena Hotel in Tobago and all of our members are invited.

"What is required is that you must have a PDP jersey on, you must wear the garment –PDP jersey on. We expect in the next two weeks to have jerseys available and all you have to do is to contact assemblyman Farley for such.

“We are prepared to lead Tobago from the bondage, from the chokehold of the PNM, to a place of prosperity, economic stability and to a place where Tobago will enjoy a great amount of certain autonomy. For long we have been promised this and it has been uncertain. We are saying when we enter, we would be giving Tobago autonomy,” he said, adding that the PDP "guarantees Tobago autonomy within the first year of office.”

Duke, who is also THA Minority Leader, said that as he walked the streets of Tobago, the message was clear and so he had to share it with both the Prime Minister and THA Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles.

“I meet today to issue a clarion call to the Chief Secretary and the Prime Minister. I meet to say to them on behalf of the people, in Tobago parlance, ‘We fed up, we tired, we tired, we’re ready to renew your mandate or not renew it.’

Duke took issue with the recent PNM September Affair dinner and dance held over the weekend at the Hyatt.

“Persons are in a quandary wondering how the PNM could celebrate (at) $1,500 a plate when people can’t even buy food to put on their table. People are wondering, how they could be jamming still when there is pain all around and mummy and daddy still fighting up with rent and jobs.”

SEDITION CHARGE? NO PROBLEM

Duke expressed confidence he will be freed of his sedition charge, which he sees as no hindrance to his political career.

“I am confident that this is a 'no case' that they have raised against me only to see how deep my pockets are. But I have no pockets and I would continue to fight them on prayers. Put them before the Lord, he would deal with them."

Duke, the outgoing head of the Public Services Associaiton, was charged on August 29 in relation to comments made

during a television interview last November concerning workers of TSTT, TTEC and WASA.

He appeared before Magistrate Adia Mohammed in the Port of Spain Third Court and was granted bail with a surety in the sum of $250,000 on August 30. The case was adjourned to December 13. Duke is also facing a charge of rape.

He was dismissive of the sedition charge, saying he believed it was politically motivated.

“What I have discovered, contrary to the PNM expectation, is that people on the ground already have a fair enough idea as to who Watson Duke is, and an old adage once said, 'Who you are speaks so loudly, I can hardly hear what you’re saying.'”

He said Watson Duke was "a brand."

Watson Duke, he said, was "out there living a public life. All that one could find out about me is there.

"I am not one to promote violence. I speak very strongly, and I would continue to speak with strength and eloquence. I would continue to use metaphors, figurative language, similes, idioms – whatever, you can call them wherever, but I would continue to use those figures of speech to get my message across. I believe language is poetry and you have to be artful in doing it.

"If they think it is something evil, I can say to you...People see me as someone who is fighting for the country, albeit (sic) it is the truth. I am fighting for the country, I am fighting for the people and they want to silence me.

"But if they succeed with this, they will silence every single one who oppose their anarchy party, called the PNM."