Tobago rejects Beckles and PNM

The THA election was not merely a loss for the PNM, it was a political demolition. Fifteen seats to zero is a message. And that message was delivered directly to Pennelope Beckles and the failed PNM she now leads.Yet, in a stunning display of political denial, Beckles emerged after that humiliation to say the PNM planned to “put Tobago first again.” Again? Tobago remembers very well what the PNM’s version of leadership looked like. Ten uninterrupted years in national office gave the PNM every opportunity to put Tobago first, or even second. It did neither.

Under PNM rule, Tobago was fed promises without timelines, speeches without substance, and projects without completion. Economic diversification remained theoretical, infrastructure limped along, and young Tobagonians continued to search for opportunity elsewhere. Tobago was not neglected by accident, it was neglected by design, buried under a government that talked vision while delivering stagnation.Trinidad suffered the same fate. Public confidence collapsed, institutions weakened, crime spiralled, and governance became reactive and defensive. The PNM’s decade in office produced excuses instead of results and arrogance instead of accountability. That is the record Beckles now pretends does not exist.

Leadership is not measured by press statements after defeat. It is measured by outcomes. On outcomes, Beckles has nothing to stand on. A leader who cannot win a single seat, who cannot inspire confidence, and who cannot defend her party’s own governing record has no moral authority to lecture the population about “putting Tobago first.”A 15-0 result is the electorate stripping away illusions. It is voters saying they see through recycled slogans and empty rhetoric. Beckles can talk as much as she wants, but Tobago has already answered her and the answer is total rejection.