Shal­iza Has­sanali

Win­ston Scar­bor­ough "The Orig­i­nal De Fos­to Him­self" has jet­ti­soned the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and is now align­ing him­self with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). De fos­to, who sang for the PNM in sev­er­al cam­paigns over the years, put in an ap­pear­ance at the UNC's pub­lic meet­ing in St Au­gus­tine on Fri­day, singing Ah Cyah Vote For Dat, a song which threw barbs at the in­cum­bent Gov­ern­ment, Calder Hart, crime and the con­tentious $2mil­lion flag on the com­pound of the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um. Ad­mit­ting he sang PNM prais­es in the past, De Fos­to said he did not take the UNC stage for mon­ey.

He said: "It is a con­science call. Our coun­try must pro­pel for­ward. The PNM has to un­der­stand that enough is enough." He de­scribed the uni­ty be­tween UNC and COP as the great­est thing, say­ing Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has em­braced all par­ties un­der one um­brel­la, which no one has done be­fore. "I know peo­ple will crit­i­cise me for the song but my back is broad." Known for singing na­tion-build­ing songs, De Fos­to shocked the coun­try at the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion when he sang In a Palace State of Mind, a song which high­light­ed all the lux­u­ri­ous trap­pings in­stalled at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre.

"I think Kam­la, she is a gen­tle flower. I have lis­tened to her and you can tell that she is gen­uine. She speaks from the heart." De Fos­to said Per­sad-Bisses­sar was the fem­i­nine ver­sion of US Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma and free­dom fight­ers Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi and Mar­tin Luther King. De fos­to said his song was not writ­ten for any po­lit­i­cal par­ty. "It's no longer about par­ty. The peo­ple's mon­ey is spent on big shots and not on the poor man."