STOP playing politics!

This was the appeal made by a woman from the Scarborough/Calder Hall electoral district on Tuesday night as she urged politicians do better by Tobagonians.

In a passionate contribution at a THA district town hall meeting at Fairfield Complex, Ishla Bedlow declared she was totally fed up of the “political games” taking place on the island.

At the end of the day, she said, Tobagonians are human beings, regardless of which political party they support.

“My wish and desire right now is for us to stop the political games,” Bedlow declared before a gathering of residents from the Bagatelle/Bacolet electoral district.

“I am looking at everybody here. This person might be PNM. This person might be PDP.

"I am totally fed up and tired of the politics and political games and I know that there are a lot of young people that feel the same way. I think we are holding ourselves back.”

She said seeing her grandfather die some time ago was an eye-opener.

“Until people understand that we are all human beings that are going to die one day and leave nothing here, you all will not understand that we need each other.

"And you see the games? People are tired of the games.”

Bedlow urged the THA administration to heal the brokenness on the island by genuinely helping Tobagonians and promoting unity.

“How are you going to go forward to mend the people of the island of Tobago where we could work together?

“I don’t know why we are fighting each other. I cannot understand it. I am tired of it and I need us to stop it.

She pointed out that there were "a set of hungry people that begging and houses that need to fix."

In response, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said he had decided not to speak out on any subject that could engender divisiveness in Tobago.

He said, “One of the things I have done quite purposefully at the turn of this year is to reduce how much I respond to things that could become divisive, as in literally refuse to respond to some of it.”

Augustine said his decision does not always sit well with his communications team.

“I know that I give all my PR people, (and) probably exec members, a hard time, because they think I should respond and talk more and hit back out, and one of the reasons for doing that, purposefully, is to ensure that I contribute minimally to a narrative of division.”

He said he sees “a lot of things in black and white.

“Is either it right or it wrong – a straight line.”

Augustine related the story of a woman from Bloody Bay (in his electoral district) who once ran him out of her yard in 2016 because she had supported the PNM over the years.

He said he later gave her seedlings at a distribution drive during the covid19 pandemic and she in turn gave him produce.

“We became close friends. That is a simple lesson to show how for us in Tobago, we are more alike than we are different.”

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