Farley, a ‘Caribbean gem’

Of all the Tobago election scenes from television and newspapers, the one which touched my heart the most was seeing how Farley Augustine wept silently the Saturday before the elections when his father was describing his son’s character and struggles.

Soon after, Augustine, the 36-year-old Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) deputy leader and former teacher, gave the best speech of the Tobago election campaign.

He gave a vision of Tobago-powered tourism, a decentralised and accountable administration, energising the private sector, agro-processing plants, zero tolerance of political corruption and ways in which Tobago’s self-development could contribute to Trinidad’s economy.

It wasn’t only what he said but the manner in which the graduate in linguistics and international relations from UWI's Mona campus spoke from the platform: not reading from any script or notes, his pre-election speech made you believe he was speaking from the heart. If ever there was a politician who said the right things, the right way and at the right time, this was Augustine.

Coming before Augustine was developmental economics proponent and front-line PDP supporter, Dr Vanus James, who mapped out the “people-driven” economic parameters that the party will follow.

Another strength of this five-year-old party is the intellectual capital among its leadership, including Dr James, its chairman, Dr Sean Nedd, the youthful Kemeul Pascall and Augustine himself. Augustine was profusely grateful in thanking Watson Duke (“big dreamer”) and all PDP candidates and supporters, no doubt earning loyalty for the difficult tasks ahead.

Augustine’s platform credibility stands so far, since he faces no charge of political corruption, giving him moral space to criticise the PNM's Tracy Davidson-Celestine over the “$3.5 million spent on the missing zipline.”

His speech and demeanour appeared opposite the divisiveness, threats and fears put out by Davidson-Celestine and those sinister-looking black-and-white advertisements.

This election teaches us that money does not win elections, declared Augustine last Tuesday evening. Today, the “gem of the Caribbean” is THA’s Chief Secretary. The PNM’s lone winner, Kelvon Morris, has to become an overnight Hercules.

Indeed, one of the crucial psychological issues in this election was the allegation of “disrespect by the PNM to Tobagonians.” As the PDP recalled, before last January's THA elections, Dr Rowley told Tobagonians that he would "not forgive them” if the party lost.

Further, the platform-driven allegations by the PNM campaign of criminal conduct by Watson Duke came fast and furious. Whether it worked or not is not the point. It has been quite noticeable over the years that repeated allegations of criminal conduct have been made by certain politicians against other politicians. Just as repeating a lie makes it sounds true, so too repeating such allegations may eventually make them sound true to people before proven true in court.

Augustine’s father said he had given Tobago “a gem of the Caribbean” and spoke about how his son, a dutiful Seventh-Day Adventist, was always striving to be a better person to help others. The reason that so many eyes from both Trinidad and Tobago now look upon Augustine is mainly that with so many educational institutions around, there is a disappointing scarcity of young men like him.

Imagine this man, Augustine, when much younger and after getting an award from then Chief Secretary Orville London, telling Mr London: “Mr Chief Sec, you don’t need to be afraid now, but in a few more years you will have to be afraid, because I coming for your job.” Mr London smiled and the audience clapped at what seemed just a dream.

The PDP emphatic interest is “recovering the private sector” and helping to avoid the “dependency syndrome” in which Tobago has been getting into through THA employment and welfare. Business leaders Diane Hadad, Lancelot Jack and Martin George welcomed this turn.

It is noteworthy that an aged PDP supporter told a reporter last Wednesday: “If they don’t behave and forget to do the things they promised us, we will move them out too.”

As the years now roll into the next general election and given the 14-one result (PDP 16,932 vs PNM 11,943), how threatened are the two PNM Tobago seats now held by Shamfa Cudjoe and Ayanna Webster-Roy?