By KARL E CUPID Tobago Bureau Sunday, October 25 2009

The People’s National Movement (PNM) is “going back into the communities” to spread the ruling party’s “message” which it feels has not adequately filtered through to the masses.

The PNM General Council took this decision during its meeting at the Mt Irvine Hotel, in Tobago, yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. This was revealed by party chairman Conrad Enil during a media briefing on location which followed the meeting.

Enil said the party will be holding walk-abouts and spot meetings in constituencies throughout the country as part of the exercise aimed at ensuring that promises made by the Government were being effectively fulfilled. He stopped just short of suggesting that the PNM had lost touch with the people at “ground zero”.

“We are of the view that our message has not gone out in the manner in which it should have gone out, and therefore we have taken the responsibility for it and we are going to be intervening directly in constituencies, directly with our communities to make sure that the message that we want... the work that we have done, the work that we propose to do, the context in which we are doing it, is discussed with them so that they can give input into what we would want to do in the future,” said Enil.

“I think that is where we are now in the context of what we consider to be a very critical juncture in moving forward,” he added.

Enil said this was one of the critical issues coming out of deliberations at the general council meeting and the party had been directed to specifically focus on this issue. He added it was all part of a move at ensuring that promises made to the people were being kept, cognizant of the fact that “they (the people) have placed confidence in your ability to do what you say, (and) that it is kept and you do not take that for granted.”

Enil continued, “Our commitment to the people of Trinidad and Tobago is to continue to develop a society in which they would have a better quality of life; you cannot do that if occasionally you do not go back and find out whether or not that promise that you have made is being carried out and that they understand it to be so.”

He reported that the party took a decision to go back and touch base with the people to gauge whether they feel satisfied that promises were being kept. “We are going back into the communities!” Enil stressed.