FORMER Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dr Amery Browne has sent his congratulations to Prime Minister-elect Kamla Persad-Bissessar and the UNC on winning the general election.
In a WhatsApp message sent to Newsday on April 29, hours after the UNC and its coalition of interests swept the polls in Trinidad by an unofficial margin of 26 seats to 13, with the TPP unseating the PNM in the two Tobago seats, Browne admitted the PNM must now take its own bitter political medicine.
"I repeat my clear and unreserved congratulations to the incoming prime minister and the UNC team, and to all successful candidates in this general election on both islands (UNC, PNM, and TPP).
"The UNC has found a formula to secure a resounding electoral victory and I respect the will of the people and I wish the incoming government well."
He said that Persad-Bissessar had defied the odds and risen after serious setbacks from 2015, "And therein there are lessons for us all. The PNM now finds itself in a weak electoral position similar to 2010, and therein are some other lessons for us all.
"We have lost a full ten seats in the House of Representatives. We now have to take our medicine, bitter as it may be, and make changes in direction, tone and attitude in order to get better and earn a mandate and the trust of the great people of this land."
He said the people on the ground were particularly sensitive to any sense of injustice and any sense of entitlement, and the last thing the PNM needs is to adopt or extend any aspects of a tone-deaf posture.
"But in the end, the PNM is no fly-by-night party and we have recovered from even worse seasons than this recent one. It is going to take hard work, the ability to make significant changes, and a commitment to reconnect with the things that matter to the public.
"If people are not convinced that you love and care about them, you could be as bright as you think you are...they the people will not care about you."
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