Ramesh saved rum distillery tragedy

THE EDITOR: No observation is more common and at the same time more true than that the best form of defence is to attack. Certain persons including Senator Wade Mark continue their apparent relentless attack on former Attorney General Ramesh L Maharaj SC and their baseless attacks are held up to engage our attention enlarged with tonnes of declamation in our media including your newspaper.

One such attack appears at page 21 of your August 16 publication in which Ramesh is once more blamed for Caroni’s closure by preventing the sale of the rum distillery to a local corporation. One must remember that the agreed sale price for the distillery was $30,000,000 which is $970,000,000 less than the rum distillery’s true worth. Indeed, former Chairman, Joe Ramkissoon is on record as saying that the rum distillery is really valued at one billion dollars over ten years with good management. Apparently, the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago cannot wait for ten years nor can one find good management in our part of the world, so we should suffer a loss of $970,000,000. Because of Ramesh this tragedy was avoided and for it he is not only blamed for Caroni’s closure but also that he has “joined forces with a Government bent on racial and political discrimination.”

There is nothing magnanimous in bearing such nasty bared attacks with fortitude. Men in such circumstances act bravely even if motivated by vanity. “But he who, in the vale of obscurity, can brave adversity; who without friends to encourage acquaintances to pity or even without hope to alleviate his misfortunes, can behave with tranquility and indifference is truly great; whether peasant or courtier, he deserves admiration and should be held up for our imitation and respect”. (Goldsmith).

GARNET MUNGALSINGH
San Fernando