In a pub­lic state­ment ahead of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­ter­nal elec­tions, PNM MP for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West Stu­art Young, SC, has made it clear that his si­lence dur­ing the cam­paign pe­ri­od was a de­lib­er­ate choice root­ed in prin­ci­ple, not weak­ness.

“I took a per­son­al de­ci­sion as a mat­ter of prin­ci­ple to main­tain si­lence dur­ing the course of the PNM’s in­ter­nal elec­tions. My si­lence should not be in­ter­pret­ed as weak­ness,” Young stat­ed in a post last night.

Reaf­firm­ing his com­mit­ment to the par­ty and coun­try, Young em­pha­sised, “I have al­ways pri­ori­tised ser­vice to coun­try and to the PNM par­ty. There is no in­stance where I have en­gaged in self-serv­ing be­hav­iour, es­pe­cial­ly of the fi­nan­cial ben­e­fit type.

“I have lis­tened to, read and ob­served the com­ments of those who have of­fered them­selves as can­di­dates in the in­ter­nal elec­tions and, at this time, I will con­tin­ue to re­frain from com­ment­ing and/or en­gag­ing.

He re­mind­ed par­ty mem­bers that Trinidad and To­ba­go—like the rest of the world—is fac­ing se­ri­ous chal­lenges, and added, ‘I be­lieve our fo­cus should be on peace and sta­bil­i­ty, not self-serv­ing agen­das.’”

Young ex­tend­ed best wish­es to all can­di­dates, re­peat­ing his warn­ing: “Time is longer than twine.”