Superiority of one race, Mr Panday?

THE EDITOR: I have always studied Mr Basdeo Panday’s oratory with interest. The statements attributed to him recently concerning race in Trinidad have me thinking even further, to the extent that certain questions arise in my mind. I must ask, perforce, these questions: (a) Is Mr Panday himself racial and promoting the superiority of one race, subtly, under the guise of discrimination by another ethnic grouping? (b) Is Mr Panday hoping to change his declining fortunes in his following by introducing the type of doctrines preached in Hitler’s Germany? I recall it being said that Mr Panday had a Marxist ideology, is this in fact so — the end justifying the means? (c) Would Mr Panday preach the same equality in his home for those of East Indian descent known in earlier years in TT as “Madingas” or Black Indians?

What are Mr Panday’s thoughts on mixed marriages, especially Afro-Indo marriages the woman being of East Indian descent? My personal feelings are that the type of talk and the phrases that are said to be used by Mr Panday are in fact subliminal messages sent out to persons of like thinking who would support his particular ideology. I am of the opinion that Mr Panday has refused to accept that some of the areas covered by him are cultural differences and not racial. I have lived in this my country for over sixty years, been actively involved in the trade union and credit union movements and other community organisations. I have lived in the country and urban areas. I am yet to understand the divisiveness that is being promoted in our country today. We are supposed to be a more mature people, highly educated and able to manage our affairs. Maybe equality has a different meaning today than yesteryear. Maybe it is really power sharing than service to the people. Maybe we have lived too long in harmony, a model country and it is time to be like the Jones’, an unstable government, Italy, rioting and terrorism, India and Pakistan or Iraq comes to mind.

ALVIN NARINE
Port-of-Spain