Intellectual poverty of grassroot leadership
THE EDITOR: In most cases if not all, public protest demonstrations do not get one hundred percent support and the recent "Death March" against crime was no exception. But it bothered me that, after 45 years of Independence, a large section of our society suddenly discovered that there is class discrimination in crime and punishment in sweet TT. Class discrimination is an old story that goes way past 1956. It is part of our political, cultural, social and economic system we inherited from our then colonial masters, that our promising politicians from 1956 to date never tried to change, after we gained our independence. It is understandable that when national issues surface, it will generally attract comments, critical or otherwise, but to simply deem the "Death March" as hypocritical and condemn its label as inappropriate without dealing with the fundamental issue of our divisive class system that quietly rides on the waves of racism — demonstrates the intellectual poverty of our so-called grass-root leadership. Grass-root leaders must strive to encourage independent thinking and analyse issues in search of knowledge that will lead towards objective and useful criticisms. In my view, a useful lesson that came out of the "Death March" was the power of committed community leadership and united action in support of a cause — a lesson the less fortunate African and Indian citizens will do well to learn. WYCLIFFE MORRIS Tacarigua
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"Intellectual poverty of grassroot leadership"