New-born political party joins the fray

In its plan for legal justice the PLM wants to implement an effective “lawsuit system” which allows average citizens to sue large corporations and the security forces for serious misdeeds.

Founder and leader Eric Hercules, 44, said the PLM was established on December 1, 2005, and will be officially launched in Port-of-Spain. The PLM will also be contesting both the local and national elections with candidates in all of the electoral constituencies, Hercules said.

(Hercules is also a entrepreneur who has established a successful janitorial business in Louisiana, USA.)

“The PLM has an ideology based on the vision of true democracy which means a democracy built on the voice of the people with the majority of the citizens having the real power to develop and change their country for the better.

The people have a legal right to have a voice in the running of their country’s affairs, such as the planning of all development projects and in participating in all decisions made. Another important part of the PLM’s ideology is helping Trinidad and Tobago’s citizens understand that politicians are their servants, not the other way around.”

He was firmly of the view that the kind of democracy existing today was a false democracy because the elected representatives of the people are exploiting the citizens due to their ignorance of the concept of true democracy.

“The country can’t move forward unless its citizens are politically aware of the need for having and developing a true democracy,” he stated.

“The real meaning of democracy,” he said, “is that of the common people being in charge of their government and where the concept of democracy aspires to rule under the people and not over them. It’s majority rule and not a government in charge of a people and yet we have a system where a minority still rules the majority which is in contrast to the vision and principles on which true democracy was established.”

Hercules said the PLM membership has been quietly canvassing in the Sangre Grande area since the party’s creation late last year and its membership will soon be starting fund-raising activities.

“We’re a growing movement with a growing membership and we’ve already elected persons for various party positions like president, chairman, vice-chairman and trustee,” he revealed.

How does the PLM plan to make the nation’s electorate more aware of the need for developing what he calls true democracy in TT?

“By trying to de-programme the minds of the people who’ve been trained into believing in a false democracy and to retrain them into thinking in terms of true democracy.”

By working with the people, Hercules believes the party will be able to implement strategies to deal with the crucial issues affecting the country.

“Once the people know what they are for they’ll be able to vote with a real consciousness, knowing that their voice will be heard. The PLM is not a political party that’s into recycled politics,” he stressed. He’s against the bringing down of the British Scotland Yard police officers into the country because the Government did not consult the Trinbagonian people before they made its decision.

“The people should have been told of this move before it was done and this is false democracy because the people are not involved in the decision,” he said.

The ex-soldier said his party is taking a strong stance against corruption.

Hercules was born in Louis D’Or, Tobago, into a rural, agricultural Tobagonian lifestyle. From an early age, he said, he realised that he was more politically mature than his peers and he not only wanted to make something of his life but to help his country.

However, he also realised that he had to develop himself as much as possible before he could even dream of helping his homeland.

Military training was one way he was able to begin his journey of self-improvement, hence his enlistment at age 18 in the Defence Force (TTDF) where he served from 1980 to 1983.

After his tour of duty was completed in the TTDF, he migrated to the USA where he began building his janitorial business called Hercules Janitorial Company.

During his years in the USA, he became politically educated by reading encyclopaedias and political books written by authors and scholars of the principle of true democracy.

“I’m a self-taught educator and political activist advocating for the legal rights of the people’s voices to be heard,” he ended.