PNM keeps up call for Farley to answer on voice note

Tobago House of Assembly (THA) minority councillor Petal Daniel-Benoit has renewed her calls for THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine to clear the air on the now infamous voice recording which has gone viral on social media.

Daniel-Benoit was addressing the issue on the Minority Report on Wednesday titled, The deafening silence.

In an audio clip, two people, believed to be top THA officials, were heard discussing using state funds to hire people for public relations and propaganda. Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has not yet responded to the voice note, despite mounting calls for him to do so.

The councillor recalled that on the campaign trail, members of this current administration said that they had a social contract with Augustine saying that he should be held to a higher standard.

“All that we have heard in that voice recording, I think would have gone against the very tenet of this social contract that was signed. If we are to hold the chief secretary to a higher standard, then silence cannot be an answer or an option or a response to what is happening on the island.”

She said what the voice recording has demonstrated is that public and state resources are being used for private and personal gains.

Meanwhile, PNM Senator Lawrence Hislop said he doesn’t think that the island’s people have drifted away from their moral standings prior to the current administration getting into office.

“I think as an island, we still hold certain values very dear. I don’t think that the island has moved away from its moral standings, I think that it’s still there. What makes the difference is when you create a particular persona, when you create a particular image. When you are seen as better than – when you portray that you are better than and you falter, how you treat with it when you falter is key.”

He added: “When we err, we’ve got to say that we’ve erred. We have to accept the fact that we’ve erred.”

He said if the two top officials had faced the public already and admitted, “the reality is that you would have gotten more respect from the population, if you had come and said, this is the situation but when we say nothing, then we have to understand that that position isn’t the right position. You have a duty to the electorate when you have placed yourself in a particular place.”

He said this new administration placed themselves in a position saying that they were better than the previous administration.

PNM Tobago Council’s general secretary Akissi London said were it a PNM administration, hundreds would have already gathered in protest demanding answers and even resignations.

“It’s rather disappointing. A lot of young people would have been sold a hope and they bought into it. They bought into the picture that was painted for them of what they (the administration) is going to do and how they are going to change things and do things right as everything the PNM was doing was wrong and that they would go on this straight path.”

She added: “This has developed and you don’t even have the humility to come and say yay or nay this was me, this wasn’t and I think that you owe the people of Tobago at least that, at least some answer – it’s been two weeks and there has been no word or no statement, noting.”