Chester Sam­bra­no

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

chester.sam­bra­no@guardian.co.tt

Pen­ne­lope Beck­les of­fi­cial­ly took the reins of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) on Sun­day, be­com­ing the first woman to lead the par­ty since its found­ing near­ly sev­en decades ago.

She was in­stalled dur­ing the PNM’s Na­tion­al Con­ven­tion at City Hall, Port-of-Spain, along­side a new ex­ec­u­tive elect­ed in the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tions last Sun­day.

Ad­dress­ing par­ty mem­bers and sup­port­ers for the first time in her new role, Beck­les pledged to lead with in­tegri­ty, hu­mil­i­ty and love. She said her lead­er­ship would be root­ed in ac­count­abil­i­ty, fo­cused on re­build­ing trust, and com­mit­ted to putting peo­ple first, es­pe­cial­ly women and young peo­ple.

“Lis­ten more. Let us de­bate re­spect­ful­ly. Let us in­clude rather than ex­clude,” she said.

“This is the Trinidad and To­ba­go we must build, and it must be­gin in­side our own house.”

To long-time sup­port­ers who have grown dis­il­lu­sioned in re­cent years, Beck­les had a clear mes­sage: “To every sin­gle mem­ber of the PNM who stayed home re­cent­ly, who felt left be­hind, who said, ‘I used to sup­port them, but I can’t take it no more’ — come back home. We need your wis­dom. We need your hon­esty. We need your ex­pe­ri­ence.”

She al­so in­vit­ed the un­de­cid­ed, the scep­ti­cal, and those sim­ply ob­serv­ing from the side­lines to take a sec­ond look.

“This is a new era, new lead­er­ship, a re­newed com­mit­ment. Join us, help us, hold us ac­count­able, build with us,” she said.

“We are not just prepar­ing to win elec­tion — we are prepar­ing to win back their hearts and minds and trust.”

Beck­les made it clear that un­der her lead­er­ship, ac­count­abil­i­ty would not be a buzz­word but a stan­dard.

“Your voice has been loud, and I’ve analysed every thought shared… I’m not afraid of ac­count­abil­i­ty. In fact, I de­mand it and I wel­come it.”

She said she and all elect­ed of­fi­cers in the PNM will be held ac­count­able to the Gen­er­al Coun­cil, the Cen­tral Ex­ec­u­tive, and most im­por­tant­ly, to the mem­ber­ship.

Among her ear­ly plans is the trans­for­ma­tion of Bal­isi­er House in­to a more “peo­ple-friend­ly, ac­ces­si­ble space.” She said she in­tends to hold reg­u­lar pub­lic days at the par­ty’s head­quar­ters where she will meet di­rect­ly with cit­i­zens, par­ty mem­bers, el­ders, youths and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers.

Her plans go even fur­ther. Beck­les said Bal­isi­er House must be­come more than just a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing place. She spoke of art ex­hi­bi­tions, youth boot camps, women’s de­vel­op­ment ses­sions and lead­er­ship train­ing, all part of a broad­er ef­fort to re­con­nect the par­ty with the pop­u­la­tion.

She al­so an­nounced that Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ings will no longer be con­fined to Port-of-Spain.

“Look out, San Fer­nan­do. Look out, Ma­yaro. Look out, Ch­agua­nas. Look out, To­ba­go,” she said.

Beck­les used the plat­form to sharply crit­i­cise the cur­rent Gov­ern­ment, point­ing to job loss­es and what she de­scribed as a lack of so­lu­tions.

“In just two months, close to 15,000 peo­ple have al­ready found them­selves with­out jobs,” she said, adding that many URP and re­for­esta­tion work­ers now face fi­nan­cial hard­ship.

“They of­fered not a sin­gle so­lu­tion to any ma­jor prob­lem fac­ing this coun­try. As a mat­ter of fact, they have no so­lu­tions,” she said.

Beck­les al­so warned of “strate­gic per­son­al at­tacks” on in­di­vid­u­als.

“Yes­ter­day for them, to­mor­row for me, or it could be for you,” she said.

Beck­les said the Gov­ern­ment is still in its hon­ey­moon phase, but re­mind­ed them of the words of for­mer PNM leader George Cham­bers: “Fete done, back to work.”

“I say to this Gov­ern­ment, get to work and prop­er work, not vin­dic­tive and spite­ful work, but work for the ben­e­fit of all the peo­ple,” she said.

She as­sured par­ty mem­bers and the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty that the PNM un­der her lead­er­ship will do every­thing to pre­serve democ­ra­cy and ad­vo­cate for good gov­er­nance.

“We will stand with you, the peo­ple, every sin­gle step of the way.”

Even as she ac­knowl­edged the road ahead will be chal­leng­ing, Beck­les end­ed her ad­dress with con­fi­dence in her team.

“We will work tire­less­ly to re­store good gov­er­nance to Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she said.