Speaker: Do not forget July 27

“Trinidad and Tobago must settle with the after-tremors of July 27,1990, extract the lessons to be learnt and move forward decisively,” McComie said during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Red House, Port-of-Spain yesterday, the 18th anniversary of the attempted coup.

He described the event as a “psychological tear in our society’s fabric” and said he would welcome a commission of inquiry so the country could put “July 1990 behind us and move on”.

He also said citizens had to become the “guardians of our young and brittle democracy”.

Speaker Barry Sinanan, who also spoke at the brief ceremony, said public awareness about the attempted coup must be raised. He said the low attendance at the ceremony showed that people may have forgotten the event, which should not only be remembered by families who were directly affected but by the entire nation.

President George Maxwell Richards, former President Arthur NR Robinson, who was prime minister in 1990, were among those who placed wreaths at the base of the Eternal Flame monument. Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security Donna Cox also laid a wreath on behalf of Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

During the remembrance ceremony, Wendell Eversley, who was a hostage during the attempted coup, quietly protested on the opposite side of Abercromby Street where the ceremony took place.

Eversley held a national flag and was dressed in the national colours of red, white and black. Last week, Eversley said he had written to President Richards twice requesting a commission of inquiry into the events leading up to July 27, 1990.

He claimed many politicians, police officers and businessmen were involved in the staging of the 1990 attempted coup during which Robinson was shot.