Race talk like a ‘scratched record’

THE EDITOR: It is strange that in our beloved country where interracial relationships are predominant among people of Indian and African descent more than any other ethnic group, there are some unscrupulous politicians who are determined to put a wedge between these two. Unfortunately, according to Chief Justice Sat Sharma (in relation to the pseudo-racist appeal case) “politicians appeal to the primordial senses of citizens at election time to have them vote along racial lines.” If one has to look at the history of Basdeo Panday — past and present — the political rhetoric has been the same. The only difference is that today, his racially-sounding appeals for support have become much louder and more frequent since former President Arthur NR Robinson made the obvious decision to make Patrick Manning the interim Prime Minister. It has therefore intensified after the outright defeat at the polls on October 7, 2003. The reason for this is that the reality of being out of political power has fully sunk in and, suddenly, the Indian population is being discriminated against by the PNM (although there is no concrete evidence of such). The PNM must be really barbaric to spitefully target the Indians when it has a fair number of Parliamentarians, party executives and supporters from this community. Although one former UNC Member of Parliament described them as “cosmetic Indians” when he addressed a group of foreign-based East Indian citizens in Canada. They are now describes as “disposable pampers” on radio 90.5 by the nightly host.

The message therefore is that those in the hierarchy of the PNM are not the “true Indian” or are being used and later disposed of as is being propagated on national radio, which easily prompted one caller to state that these PNM Indians should be “ostracised.” On the same radio station, on the night of September 24, 2002, the host sounded very upset to see Indians in the PNM’s walkabout in the Aranguez/St Joseph area and said that they were indeed “dotish” for being involved. Statements and comments like these make me wonder what the term “national unity” meant under the UNC, if it is uniting the races or “the race.” That call was as hollow and ungenuine as it sounded. It is therefore no coincidence that some of the most racially appealing fulminations are made by Basdeo Panday at functions such as Indian Arrival Day and Divali, where predominantly one race is united, so that they can be reminded of “our 150 years of struggle.” Certainly, he wasn’t referring to Wade Mark (poor soul), who on TV6’s “Morning Edition,” a couple weeks ago, foolishly echoed the sentiments of another UNC Member of Parliament that the PNM is on a crusade of “ethnic cleansing,” but was rightfully asked by the host (an Indian) to provide the evidence to back up such very strong statements. Of course, he promised to do so but is yet to fulfil his promise. The point is that all this nasty political rhetoric emanating from a number of those UNC members sounds too much like a “scratched record” to the ears of many, that it no longer has much effect, except for the few who call the radio programmes all the time and some of the people who host them. Not even the minds of the majority of Caroni workers were poisoned by the emotional and racial outbursts on the topic by these misleading UNC members and union representatives, who just cannot separate (try as they may) politics from race which is culturally embedded in their systems.

The people (majority) are tuned in to a more sophisticated quality sound, like that of a CD, hence the reason they are listening to the truth and not to those who are paranoid and in hallucinating states of mind. The great difference between the two is that the UNC’s sole purpose of governing was for racial dominance, “so we can have our time now.”  Yet they have refused to accept that the true meaning of governance is way beyond their interpretation and so they continue to use the same old, stupid strategy by imputing racialism to almost every issue. However, the PNM is truly a professional, disciplined, powerful and stable political party, 47 years strong with many more years of longevity in store. Can you say the same of the UNC, whose fragility is sure to be exposed whenever Basdeo Panday is out of existence? The PNM is genuinely open to all of mankind who may be willing to step on board — as have been proven during its 47 years — without any of its political leaders or members using racial appeals to any particular race for its benefit.

GARVIN  WALTERS
Tobago

PS Can someone please explain the real meaning of Constitutional Reform? I ask this because, according to the UNC’s interpretation (only now), it stands to be to their benefit.