JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Social media activist confronts MPs during PNM walkabout in Grande

by

20 days ago
20250130
Energy Minister Stuart Young shakes the hand of a resident during a walkabout with Sangre Grande/Toco MP Roger Monroe through North Eastern Settlement, Sangre Grande, yesterday. At right is senior PNM member Jennifer Baptiste-Primus.

Energy Minister Stuart Young shakes the hand of a resident during a walkabout with Sangre Grande/Toco MP Roger Monroe through North Eastern Settlement, Sangre Grande, yesterday. At right is senior PNM member Jennifer Baptiste-Primus.

COURTESY: ROGER MUNROE/ FACEBOOK

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) be­gan hit­ting the gen­er­al elec­tion ground with walk­a­bouts yes­ter­day in To­co/San­gre Grande, and will be go­ing from con­stituen­cy to con­stituen­cy, gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings said.

The team yes­ter­day was led by To­co/San­gre Grande MP Roger Mon­roe, Cum­mings and prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young. How­ev­er, Mon­roe faced com­plaints from cer­tain con­stituents.

The walk­a­bout by about 150 sup­port­ers in red PNM jer­seys, in­clud­ing Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein, walked to the ac­com­pa­ni­ment of mu­sic trucks through the North East­ern Set­tle­ment. They lis­tened to con­cerns along the way.

At one point, the group was con­front­ed by a res­i­dent, so­cial me­dia ac­tivist War­rior Princess (San­dra Em­manuel). In a video post­ed on Face­book, she is seen con­fronting the group say­ing she want­ed to speak to her MP, point­ing at Mon­roe. She asked him about his plans for the area.

Young at­tempt­ed to ex­plain that Mon­roe had been with them all evening but the woman said she was di­rect­ing the con­ver­sa­tion to the To­co/San­gre Grande MP.

She asked Young: “And you are?! You are Mr Stu­art Young?!”

She con­tin­ued to in­sist on speak­ing with Mon­roe for her­self, adding there were a lot of is­sues with young peo­ple in the area. How­ev­er, the group pro­ceed­ed to move on and War­rior Princess said: “Why all yuh run­ning off? We ask­ing ques­tions, there are a lot of delin­quent youths, why am I sup­posed to put my hand in red for the bal­isi­er? Stu­art Young pull him away. If all yuh want my vote, all yuh have to show me why I sup­posed to vote for the PNM! I want to know why! They shy­ing from the ques­tions!”

War­rior Princess, who said she had “born and grow in a PNM house,” urged res­i­dents not to al­low mem­bers of the PNM group to shake their hands.

“This is the first and last time we go see dem!” she de­clared.

Mon­roe re­port­ed­ly al­so heard com­plaints from oth­er res­i­dents who said they hadn’t seen him along the way.

How­ev­er, at the end of the walk­a­bout, Cum­mings, in an ad­dress post­ed on his Face­book page, stood among cheer­ing sup­port­ers, say­ing he was hap­py to be sup­port­ing Mon­roe “as we put a whip­ping on the UNC!”

He added “We’re go­ing to beat the UNC back in­to op­po­si­tion. Roger all the way!

“We’re go­ing to make sure that we get the PNM elect­ed to Gov­ern­ment once more!”

Cum­mings lat­er held Mon­roe’s and Young’s hands up in a vic­to­ry sign.

He de­scribed the event as a “pow­er­ful walk” with a “very warm wel­come” from the area and said Mon­roe “con­tin­ues to be an at­ten­tive, ef­fec­tive and hum­ble ser­vant of the peo­ple of his con­stituen­cy.”

“Con­nect­ing with the com­mu­ni­ty, lis­ten­ing to con­cerns, and stand­ing to­geth­er for progress…this is what true rep­re­sen­ta­tion is about,” he added.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored