(Trinidad Express) The Government has sent out a “Staff Notice” to heads of T&T overseas missions informing them of the education drive by the People’s National Movement (PNM), a move that one former diplomat describes as “very worrying” in that this constitutes a party notice being sent out to Government workers.

“I have never heard of this before, never come across this where the party is being advertised by the Government,” said Reginald Dumas, a former head of mission.

Dumas said that the fact that such a notice can be sent out in 2009 in a so-called democratic society was as “amazing” as it was worrying as it represents “a conflation of government and party” and raises the question of what happens if a public servant does not follow the suggestion contained in the notice.

“This notice is going out to heads of missions. I was a head of mission and I never had something like this,” he said.