2 days ago
1
TPP candidate Keigon Denoon is unveiled at the Scarborough Esplanade on December 1. - Photo by Alva Viarruel"I hold no malice, but I had to make a choice for my people."
Those were the words of ex-PNM Tobago West constituency chairman Keigon Denoon, who has been unveiled as the Tobago People’s Party (TPP) candidate for Buccoo/Mt Pleasant, as he addressed a packed Bon Accord/Crown Point public meeting on December 2.
Denoon will now go head-on against his former PNM political leader Ancil Dennis in the battle for Buccoo/Mt Pleasant in the January 12 THA elections.
The Buccoo native, 29, who serves as the Youth Energised for Success (YES) programme coordinator under the THA Division of Community Development, Youth Development and Sport, said he never imagined speaking on a TPP platform.
“If anybody had told me years ago that I would have been standing on a TPP platform, I would have looked at them and say they’re crazy. But... you see the thing is, we are about the advancement of Tobago, we are about the advancement of our people and when a party stops you from achieving that, it is time for you to move on.”
He spoke candidly for the first time about his decision to sever ties with the PNM mere hours before he was on a TPP platform.
Denoon said switching allegiance was “very difficult”, but he said he was very grateful for the lessons learnt.
“I leave there with no animosity. My heart is clean, and my hands are pure. You see what is important, brothers and sisters, is the plans that we have for the advancement of this great island. For far too long we’ve sat on the sidelines and for far too long we’ve allowed some things to continue, but four years ago Tobago gave the TPP a chance and that chance they took it and they ran with it. The political leader Farley Chavez Augustine – one of the most strategic individuals I’ve met in a very long time. You see when a man is a strategist and he’s also a strategist that goes before God – that’s a dangerous man.”
He said many may question why the TPP?
“The decision was a difficult one. Long conversations and so on but what was the breaking point for me even after I prayed and fasted, after the voicenote (of PNM members questioning his allegiance) leaked, when man means evil, God means good.
"After the voicenote came out, I came home and I met about 30-something young people at my gate and they were excited at the prospective of me being their representative."
Denoon said he told the youths that it was no so simple and that was not how politics works. However, he said one of them left him with a message to ponder deeply.
"He said to me, 'I understand all the political bureaucracies and the red tapes and so on but I want you to consider something Mr Denoon. What is more important? Is a political party more important than the people that you claim to love and to serve?'
"I looked at him, and I felt the pain and I saw it in his eyes – those young people need someone to represent them that they feel passionate about, that they know that when that person goes there without fear of contradiction that that person will represent them and represent them well. That was the changing point in my decision. I am not here for the applause; I am here to serve the people of Tobago and that I will do to the best of my ability.”
He said his life journey has been of service recounting his tenure as president of the Buccoo Village Council to Programme Administrator of the YES programme, director at the Lambeau Credit Union and Caricom Youth Ambassador.
“I am so very passionate about the young people of Tobago, especially those who feel like they have no voice. There is a group of young people who need direction and advice, and we are here to stand in the gap for that.”
He added: “What is important is on January 12, we are again going to face the polls, and you have to determine the future of this island and determine the future that you want for your children and your children’s children. It is about time that we continue the work that has been put in over the past four years. "
He said no administration is perfect but people should support "an administration that tries and puts the people of Tobago first, a political leader who listens to the people."
English (US) ·