PNM: Will the 'real' Farley Augustine stand up?

The People’s National Movement’s (PNM) Tobago Council is calling on the real Farley Augustine to stand up.

Questioning whether the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) deputy political leader is a champion of morality or hypocrite, the PNM demanded Augustine respond to the latest allegations involving his party’s leader Watson Duke.

Last week, a newspaper reported there was a probe into Public Services Association (PSA) president Duke receiving a

$500,000 retirement pension payment from the union in 2019. Duke had announced his intention to resign in September 2019, but then changed his mind.

Duke, who was re-elected to the post in the December 2020 PSA elections, has been president since 2009.

The PSA boss, responding in a Facebook video, claimed the report was part of a strategy by the PNM and others to “demonise” him.

He further alleged the strategy “to attack black success” came out of the PNM playbook and had been used against him since he launched the PDP in 2016.

But in a statement on Thursday, the Tobago Council said fair-minded Tobagonians must be alarmed at the recent revelations involving Duke.

The party said: “Concerns were raised when the public received reports that WASA (Water and Sewerage Authority) paid millions to a company owned by the wife of Watson Duke.

“That concern has been further heightened by the recent investigation which unearthed the fact that he had accepted over half a million dollars in gratuity payments from the Public Services Association.”

The PNM said it was shocked that Duke boasted in a Facebook live on March 22, "that he had received the money and that he was entitled to it.”

It went on: “In that report, he also indicated that the money was used to fund the PDP launch at the Magdalena Hotel, although he and his deputy Farley Augustine had previously reported that the event was funded by donations from the members.”The PNM called on Augustine to state his position on these developments.

“It is particularly revealing that while this sorry saga is being played out in the public domain, Farley Augustine, the PDP candidate for chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, is uncharacteristically silent.

“Farley Augustine, who never passes up an opportunity to be interviewed or to use social media to promote himself to denigrate his opponents, has suddenly gone quiet.”

The PNM queried the silence of Augustine when compared to his vociferous condemnation of PNM Tobago political leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine's role in the zipline project in the THA election campaign

"Are you the same Farley Augustine who used misinformation in your efforts to destroy the character of a Tobago East sister, in your quest for political power?

"Are you the same Farley Augustine who portrayed himself as a champion of morality in public life when you launched that vicious campaign against PNM political leader Tracy Davidson Celestine? Should Tobagonians not conclude that you are guilty of the highest level of hypocrisy?"

The PNM said Augustine cannot remain silent and still maintain any credibility in the eyes of Tobagonians.

Recalling when Augustine had apologised to Tobago after Duke had made crass comments against two Tobago women prior to the last general election, the PNM said the public is aware that the last time Augustine spoke out on an issue involving Duke, “he was put firmly in his place by his political leader.

“His response, in the present environment, will give us some indication as to whether he is man or mouse, or maybe, just a willing pawn.”