Gonzales appeals for PNM unity

As Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les be­gins whip­ping the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­to shape ahead of the next Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions, the par­ty's chair­man, Mar­vin Gon­za­les, is urg­ing mem­bers to put aside in­ter­nal di­vi­sions and unite be­hind a com­mon goal.

Ad­dress­ing sup­port­ers at a PNM meet­ing in Mara­bel­la on Thurs­day night, Gon­za­les made a di­rect ap­peal for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with­in the op­po­si­tion, de­clar­ing that per­son­al dif­fer­ences must no longer stand in the way of re­build­ing the par­ty.

"It is our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty as PNM mem­bers to put aside our pet­ty dif­fer­ences," Gon­za­les told sup­port­ers.

"Let us hold hands to­geth­er be­cause our dif­fer­ences are in­signif­i­cant com­pared to the threats that face the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go to­day."

His com­ments come against the back­drop of per­sis­tent ac­cu­sa­tions that the PNM has been plagued by in­fight­ing since the tran­si­tion of pow­er from Dr Kei­th Row­ley and the fol­low­ing mas­sive de­feat in the gen­er­al elec­tions. Once re­gard­ed as a par­ty that large­ly kept its in­ter­nal dis­agree­ments be­hind closed doors, the PNM has in re­cent months faced re­peat­ed spec­u­la­tion about di­vi­sions among se­nior fig­ures as it seeks to re­group in Op­po­si­tion.

Gon­za­les dis­missed any sug­ges­tion that per­son­al re­la­tion­ships with­in the par­ty should take prece­dence over its po­lit­i­cal mis­sion.

"I don't care who ain't like me. I don't care who ain't like Pen­ny. I don't care who ain't like Amery Browne. I don't care who ain't like Bri­an Man­ning. I don't care who ain't like Fos­ter Cum­mings. I don't care who ain't like Stu­art Young. I don't care who ain't like Row­ley," he said.

"At the end of the day, who ain't like who is not im­por­tant. Get­ting sane and sta­ble gov­er­nance in Trinidad and To­ba­go must be our clar­i­on call, must be our sole fo­cus."

The chair­man urged par­ty mem­bers across Trinidad and To­ba­go, and even those liv­ing abroad, to mo­bilise and strength­en the par­ty's grass­roots ma­chin­ery in prepa­ra­tion for the lo­cal polls.

"Get your par­ty groups or­gan­ised. Get your con­stituen­cy or­gan­ised. Get all of the units of your con­stituen­cy and your par­ty or­gan­ised," he said.

"Let us mo­bilise all our PNM units. Let us get to­geth­er and move to all of the con­stituen­cies, all of the com­mu­ni­ties. Let us ral­ly the peo­ple to­geth­er."

Gon­za­les al­so sought to broad­en the PNM's ap­peal be­yond its tra­di­tion­al sup­port base, claim­ing that many for­mer sup­port­ers of the gov­ern­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress had be­come dis­il­lu­sioned.

"There are peo­ple who once sup­port­ed the UNC, don't want to have noth­ing to do with the UNC again. Let us bring them back in the PNM," he said.

He de­scribed the PNM as a na­tion­al move­ment ca­pa­ble of at­tract­ing cit­i­zens re­gard­less of po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion, race or eth­nic­i­ty.

"If you care about Trinidad and To­ba­go, the PNM is now a na­tion­al plat­form that will ral­ly all the peo­ple, re­gard­less of race, re­gard­less of colour, re­gard­less of your eth­nic­i­ty."

Gon­za­les went on to launch a scathing at­tack on the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion, de­scrib­ing it as "cor­rupt," "in­ept" and "crim­i­nal", while ar­gu­ing that re­mov­ing the Gov­ern­ment should be the par­ty's cen­tral ob­jec­tive.

He al­so sought to re­mind sup­port­ers of what he de­scribed as the PNM's his­tor­i­cal val­ues.

"The PNM is far dif­fer­ent from the UNC. We be­lieve in moral­i­ty in pub­lic af­fairs. We rep­re­sent the con­science of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go," he said.

Call­ing for a re­newed sense of uni­ty, Gon­za­les hailed the par­ty's past lead­ers, in­clud­ing found­ing leader Dr Er­ic Williams, for­mer prime min­is­ters George Cham­bers, Patrick Man­ning, Kei­th Row­ley, as well as cur­rent Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young.

"This is the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment," he said. "To­day here in Clax­ton Bay, I call all par­ty mem­bers, let us put aside our dif­fer­ences and let us unite once and for all."