Duke hits out at plans for ‘independents’ party

PROGRESSIVE Democratic Patriots (PDP) leader Watson Duke has hit out at plans for a new political party associated with the 13 “independents” elected to Tobago House of Assembly (THA) under the PDP.

“It is difficult for anybody in this country, TT, to form a party and win – extremely difficult, or impossible.” Duke, speaking on the Tobago Updates morning show on Monday, said: “You have to become a brand; the person must have a larger-than-life personality and I don’t see that by accident – you have to be larger than life.”

Last Thursday, THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine denied that the members of his administration were to launch a new political party. He said supporters of the 13 independents – former members of the PDP – were behind the move to start a new party, and he had been asked to be its interim leader.

But, according to Duke, it would not work.

“Those who are trying to form something – I am the larger-than-life figure not them. They came in on my bigness, my name, my brand – Spartans, fighters – Tobago needed a fighter and we projected ourselves as fighters. Walking how many miles from Roxborough to Scarborough, swimming; doing things battling for Tobago. We did that, but they are just jellyfish, a bunch of weaklings who feel that they are academically strong, but they are weak.”

Almost four months after the former PDP members declared themselves “independents” in the THA, a Facebook post last Monday, with a picture of Augustine, said the launch was due to place yesterday at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex. THA Minority Leader Kelvon Morris has previously urged Augustine to form a new party so that Tobagonians could go back to the polls.

In the December 2021 THA election, the PDP won a landslide 14-1 victory over the PNM. But eight months into its tenure Duke accused the administration of failing to help a Roxborough cultural group which had gone to New York to perform and were left without funds. Duke later removed Augustine, Secretary of Health, Wellness and Social Protection Dr Faith BYisrael and Alicia Roberts-Patterson as deputy leaders of the party.

He also resigned as Deputy Chief Secretary. BYisrael replaced him. Augustine and the other members of the THA executive resigned from the PDP on December 5, 2022.

Questioned on the fallout between himself and the independents, he said, “They were drawn away by their own lust for power.”

Duke said he allowed Augustine to be appointed Chief Secretary so he could focus on Trinidad where he launched an arm of the PDP. However, Kezel Jackson, the deputy leader of the Trinidad branch resigned after a public disclosure of an affair she and Duke, who is married, had.

“The mission was – I told the people that I am going to Trinidad to fight, and Farley would remain in Tobago to become Chief Secretary and I supervised that process to ensure that he becomes Chief Secretary. I took a very miniscule position as deputy chief secretary and I allowed him, even when he started behaving rude and swell-headed, I stepped back. I didn’t stay and fight him, I simply said, let me resign so he would control all of the executive and he would be able to lead based on the vision that the people gave to him at the polls – the mandate. When I did that, you see what happened – he became a blind man, he felt that wasn’t enough.”