Casan­dra Thomp­son�Forbes

Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) can­di­date for To­ba­go West Sham­fa Cud­joe has de­scribed the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment led by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar as "out of touch," "out of reach," "ir­rel­e­vant," "ob­so­lete"and "ex­pired."

She was de­liv­er­ing her maid­en pub­lic speech at a cot­tage meet­ing at the Lam­beau pavil­lion on Sat­ur­day night fol­low­ing a walk­a­boutin the area.

Speak­ing to scores of sup­port­ers, Cud­joe said the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment spent five years in of­fice with noth­ing to show for it and they should not be af­ford­ed an­oth­er chance.

"For Trinidad and To­ba­go to grow, the UNC must go. For Trinidad and To­ba­go to grow, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar must go.For Trinidad and To­ba­go to grow, Del­mon Bak­er must go. For Trinidad and To­ba­go to grow, Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin must go. And for Trinidad and To­ba­go to grow, the TOP must go. They have lost their com­pass, they have lost their an­chor, drift­ing aim­less­ly with the UNC hands at the tiller," she said.

Cud­joe added that the new­ly formed po­lit­i­cal par­ty To­ba­go For­wards, head­ed by in­ter­im po­lit­i­cal leader Christlyn Moore, is no op­tion for the peo­ple of To­ba­go since they are a fac­tion of the To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP) and agents of the Trinidad-based Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). She said the change in po­lit­i­cal colours, name and con­sti­tu­tion can­not fool To­bag­o­ni­ans.

"We know who you are and to who (sic) you be­long–born, bred and bot­tle fed by the UNC. It is in­trigu­ing to hear the To­ba­go For­wards is­su­ing a clar­i­on call for all an­ti-PNM fac­tions to join forces in an ef­fort to de­feat this great par­ty, I said to my­self the more things change the more they stay the same, be­cause they are fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of their UNC par­ent body which unit­ed forces based on on­ly one thing–sim­ple old hate for the PNM:no plan, no pol­i­cy, no uni­ty in pur­pose, just plain old hate for the PNM," Cud­joe said.

Cud­joe­said that T&Tneeds a gov­ern­ment with sober lead­er­ship with dig­ni­ty, a moral com­pass and in­tegri­ty.