CARUTH: IF AH SKIP, AH SKIP

In a take-off on calypsonian Blackie’s hit song, Cecil Caruth, NAR Tobago political leader who defected to the Democratic Action Congress (DAC), quipped that he was “athletic,” and declared, “If ah skip, ah skip.” That was the message Caruth, incumbent Assemblyman for Roxborough/Delaford, delivered to his constituents at Roxborough when the DAC bandwagon rolled into the East Tobago district Sunday evening. Caruth will be seeking to retain his seat on a DAC ticket, against the PNM’s Hilton Sandy, Secretary of Infrastructure/Public Utilities, in the January 17 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Elections.

Caruth outlined his political profile, recalling that he was first a member of the ACDC, then DAC, onto NAR, and now back to DAC. “So all ah we skip!” he told the comparatively small crowd, alluding to his DAC colleagues who were all members of the NAR before the party was split into two factions with the revival of the DAC. He said: “I am happy to be here today  in Roxborough once more to represent you. I happen to be in the best team, I happen to be in a team that is a winning team, I happen to be in a team that is serious,” he asserted. Caruth claimed that a woman recently told him that she was a member of the PNM but “them fellas ain’t no good. And she said to me that she is going to work night and day to replace them,” said Caruth.

He urged: “We in Roxborough, Delaford, Belle Garden, Mt St George, we must work tirelessly to replace those fellas who had four years of trial and they failed miserably. We are going into the House (of Assembly) to deliver once more,” he declared. Caruth said that he was naturally a mediator. “I am a pacifist, I don’t like noise, and where I see noise and confusion I try to temper it a little. And I tried, and I tried, I tried, and I tried, and I fail, and I fail, and then I skip!” Referring to last Sunday’s observance of Covenant Sunday in the Methodist Church, of which he is a senior member, he said it was a time when “you recommit yourself to be a proper and good Christian. I want you today (Sunday) to commit yourself to be a proper and good Tobagonian, to be a proper and good DAC, to be proper and good; and I don’t care if we have a clean sweep,” he told cheering DAC members and supporters. “I don’t care here if we have a clean sweep; it will be all to the good of Tobago and we’ll be sending a message to Trinidad. And Tobago always sends the message!”