Party chairman, Franklin Khan, party officers and I’d like to start by recognising Deputy Political Leader (Policy), Mr Rohan Sinanan.
Because one of the big issues in this election that we have just won is that we had no policy but we had deputy political leader Rohan Sinanan, campaign manager for the 2015 election.
The information that we have available to us at the various constituencies indicate that, party officers, members, supporters, fellow citizens, that we of the PNM have been passed an awesome responsibility.
For me it is a very humbling experience, to have had the opportunity, firstly to lead the PNM, to take responsibility for the country’s Opposition, to lead our party into what has been one of the most gruelling elections in the history of our country and coming out of it victorious tonight.
I am humbled but I am very grateful. I must give thanks to our organisation for keeping its shape and holding its contact with the Opposition, not losing faith when things didn’t look too bright. But having this abiding principle that we of the PNM are not a political party in the narrow sense of the word, in the ordinary sense but rather, we are a rally for all the people of Trinidad and Tobago coming together fighting for the common good.
And I think this election, in our 60th year, demonstrates that the PNM can keep its shape. Five years ago, in this very same place, a completely different mood overtook us, we were down but we were never out.
We knew that we were always the party of the long haul. Sometimes the runner stumbles and even when the runner falls, the tape is always on his mind. Our organisation allowed itself to be modernised. Our screening committee, our executives across the country, all 41, our membership opened up their minds to accept news ways of doing things, to accept new people and to accept new responsibility. And we always said to the people of T&T the value of the PNM is to be available to the people of T&T whenever you need to call on us. And once again the people of T&T have called on the PNM.
The majority of our victorious candidates are new to the Parliament of T&T and many of them are new to my leadership and some of them are even new to the party.
But I want to give the country the assurance that all of us, new and old, young and not so young, we will be guided by the fundamental principles of the PNM and the Constitution of T&T.
Throughout our campaign we have made it quite clear to the population that these are not times of milk and honey. There are difficult times ahead.
It is like going down the river and I am telling you that there are rapids ahead, there is rough water ahead but if we navigate them successfully, there is calm water ahead.
It is my view, as I have expressed before, that our country is not a basket case. We have a fair amount of resources, we are a resilient people, particularly a large body of young people who are looking for a future from our country.
We will succeed, not basically because of who is in office or who won the election, but more importantly, how we behave as a people in treating with the challenges that ahead. Tonight, tonight is the wedding—a wedding is a feast, is a fete, the wedding is the beginning, it is the living that matters.
Let’s live together in harmony. And as I said throughout the campaign, what we are striving for and what will hold us together, we have to take at the individual level, responsibility for ourselves and say that we are our brother’s keeper.
And if we commit to that nobody in this country will go hungry, while others go overweight. We are all in this together. And having said that and speaking from the platform of the party that won the election, I want to say to the members and supporters of the UNC tonight your party has tasted defeat.
We of the PNM can tell you the taste of that brew. But I want to say to you that when this country has passed responsibility to the PNM it is not ‘we vs them’, we are all in this together.
And while we form the Government, you of the UNC will form the Opposition but we all expect you to act as a part of the Government because your responsibility is awesome.
And if we accept that we are all in this together, T&T, all of us, would come out of our difficulties together. We need to