PNM Tobago East candidate weeps as her children endorse her

PNM Tobago East incumbent MP Ayanna Webster-Roy was moved to tears on April 19 as her children endorsed her candidacy for a third consecutive term during a political meeting at the Goodwood Secondary School.

“That was a humbling experience to see the three children in Trinidad and Tobago who does sacrifice their mum the most, who have given up time with their mum the most, come and endorse me for another term, that is the greatest honour I could ever get,” she told supporters at the start of her address.

Webster-Roy, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, said people often ask her, ‘Why you still fighting up and putting yourself through this?'

“And I often tell people, ‘I am not doing it for me, not doing it for fame. I am not even doing it for the party. I am doing it for the children of TT.'

“Just like Mr (Orville) London would have sacrificed years with his children, just like Mr (Stanford) Callender would have sacrificed years with his children. I saw my political leader sacrifice years with his children for the greater good of the people of TT, for the greater good of every boy, every girl in TT.

“And I will continue to stand in the gap, I will continue to fight, I will continue to deliver because I know that in Ayanna Webster-Roy you can find a representative, a leader you can trust and depend on.”

She said former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley did not make a mistake when he appointed her minister with responsibility for child and gender affairs.

“When it comes to the business of our most vulnerable, you see the quiet, reserved humble young lady that Barbara (her mother) send down to Trinidad, when it comes to advocating on behalf of our children, on behalf of our women who are being battered, on behalf of our vulnerable men and boys, the beast comes out.”

As such, Webster-Roy disagreed with the view of some people that she and the party’s Tobago West candidate Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis were non-performers during their past ten years as MPs.

“So when they asking you, ‘What Ayanna do for you?' And they telling you that Ayanna and Shamfa eh deliver, let me put something on the table. Every time we ensured that a boy or a girl in your village got their schoolbooks, we did something for you.

“Every time we bought a hamper for your neighbour, we did something for you. Every time we went out there and ensured that your roads were fixed, your drains were built, we ensured you got water, we got you electricity, we did something for you.”

She said many Tobagonians had become selfish.

“Tobago, when we get so selfish to say if yuh eh do it for me, personally, yuh eh do it at all. Tobago, where did we get to this place where, unless it wasn’t in your pocket directly, you saying, ‘We eh deliver.’

“When I fed you children and your friends’ children, we fed you because we gave you the opportunity to keep some money in your pocket.

“When Shamfa and I advocated for more water, we brought a better quality of life to each and every one of you. So how dare you, Tobago, say the People’s National Movement did not deliver?”