To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine has asked mem­bers of his par­ty to get ready for the next THA elec­tion—even though no date has been an­nounced.

Speak­ing dur­ing a thanks­giv­ing ser­vice at Rovenel’s on May 16, Au­gus­tine told par­ty sup­port­ers and THA ex­ec­u­tives to be pre­pared when the call comes.

Us­ing a bib­li­cal anal­o­gy, he said:

“So you bet­ter get your lamps trimmed and burn­ing. Those who are wise and have their lamps trimmed and burn­ing will be ready for when­ev­er that date comes. Those who are un­wise and ill-pre­pared at that time will find them­selves on the los­ing end of the stick.”

Au­gus­tine made the com­ments while cel­e­brat­ing the par­ty’s his­toric win in the gen­er­al elec­tion last month, where TPP can­di­dates Joel Samp­son and David Thomas de­feat­ed the PNM, end­ing a nine-year reign in the To­ba­go East and West seats.

But he re­mind­ed the crowd that cel­e­bra­tions must give way to re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

“Don’t let ar­ro­gance, don’t let hubris step in what­so­ev­er. Keep your feet on the ground. Area rep­re­sen­ta­tives, you should be walk­ing 10 times more. Go back to the ground, and do not take your feet off the ground. Come out of those Pra­dos and For­tuners, and what­ev­er they have in the Di­vi­sion. Leave the air-con­di­tioned of­fice be­hind and go back in­to the hot sun and deal with your peo­ple.”

Au­gus­tine said that while the par­ty cel­e­brates its vic­to­ry, it can­not af­ford to be­come com­pla­cent. He is call­ing on his team to stay hum­ble, re­main ground­ed, and be ready to lead.