Do every creed and race find an equal place?

THE EDITOR: Please allow me some space to vent my emotions on the recent revelation that the government’s written policy with respect to admissions to the state funded institutions of COSTAATT is to give preference to Afro Trinidadian males.

I am so angry about this issue that I can barely contain myself. For years I have proudly sang the words of our national anthem: “Here every creed and race find an equal place.” It was not that I was naive enough to believe that all forms of discrimination were absent for I know human nature only too well. But never in my wildest dreams did I believe that discrimination would be practised by the government of this country as part of its official policy! How is the Indo Trinidadian to feel knowing that no matter how hard he works to gain admission to one of these institutions the cards are stacked against him because of his ethnicity.

The defenders of this abhorrent form of apartheid say that the Afro Trinidadian male is in need of help. Who put him in that position? What about the 9000 Caroni workers who were recently put on the breadline? Are they not in need of help also? I could take you now to poverty stricken little dusty villages in central and south Trinidad. Are these people not in need of help also? Where are the official government policies to give them help at the expense of others? Where man... where? However, the really worrying issue is that the government policy with respect to COSTAATT has only accidentally come to light. The real question is where else is the government practising this kind of discrimination where the policy may not be in writing but is being carried out in practice!

RONALD SAMMY
Palmiste