Manning: We are all one big family

“INDIANS AND AFRICANS  are part of one big family in Trinidad and Tobago.”

Prime Minister Patrick Manning said so at the Divali Nagar Site on Friday, May 30, at the Indian Arrival Day celebrations of the National Council of Indian Culture (NCIC) before a fair-sized crowd. He stressed: “So often we have seen in Trinidad and Tobago groups and individuals who have acted, as indeed they ought to have done, outside their natural ethnicity, to bring relief, development and progress to the people of the country.”  “That is what family is about,” Manning added. “Sometimes we are given so often to talking about Africans and Indians in Trinidad and Tobago that we behave in effect as though no one else matters,” the Prime Minister said. He extended Indian Arrival Day greetings “to all of you gathered here, those in their homes, and our highways and bye-ways, and to all our citizens near and far, in our country at present and in places abroad.”

Manning said that Indian Arrival Day was a national holiday “notwithstanding the fact that the occasion centres around the experience of a particular group who made a historic and fateful journey to the Caribbean and who is now part of a considerable number of people of our nation.” His Indian Arrival Day greeting was meant for “everyone no matter what station or walk in life, and of whatever persuasion or whether you are Indian, African, Chinese, Hindu, Baptist, Roman Catholic, man, woman or child.” He commended the NCIC for their outstanding work over the years in promoting cultural activities and saluted their efforts on behalf of the Government and people of Trinidad and Tobago. Manning said that he was keenly interested in all organisations that work for the welfare and interest of the people of the country.

He praised a former Minister of Education, Roy Joseph for his efforts in bringing to parliament a petition that led to the incorporation of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha in 1952 and he wished to remind the audience that “Roy Joseph belonged to neither of the major ethnic groups in the country but he worked in the interest of all. “And I tell you this in a context in which it has now become fashionable to cast racial slur and to direct invectives against non-Africans and non-Indians in our parliament and I state, that is not how we treat members of the Trinidad and Tobago family.” “In the same way, the national community is duty bound to relate to our East Indian national family members with a right national spirit which is to be respected in relation to all amongst us,” Manning stressed. “And on the other hand, there are those who refuse to see in our national celebration anything but a negative agenda on the part of those who would celebrate,” he added. Manning stressed, “Let it be known that these are attitudes and perceptions that constitute disinvestment and which we could do without.”

The prime minister emphasised, “That time is now at hand when all around us must let suspicions and mistrust give way to appreciation, respect, love and understanding.” He noted the “presence of East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago has been a constructive engagement as they continue to make an invaluable contribution to the development of our nation and we are grateful for the preservation and passing on of various aspects of their traditions, cultural norms and institutions.” Manning was also convinced that “the East Indian fellow citizens are as integrated as any other into all aspects of national life.” He noted, “Today, rare is the citizen who really and truly does not feel or see himself as part of our nation, but this is not to say that there are no challenges.” He touched on countries like Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya, Fiji, Australia and said that “what separates us from them, lock, stock and barrel is that even where there are those that continue to deny or ignore it, we have long been embracing the plurality of our diversity and are increasingly better off for doing so.”

Manning said that in “Trinidad and Tobago we have been long opening the way for the fuller participation of all the groups in our society.” The prime minister further emphasised, “It is now for us to show ourselves as a nation fully appreciative of the merits of our cosmopolitan make-up and determined to demonstrate to the world that groups of different backgrounds can both live together and progress in peace and harmony, on the basis of genuine understanding, appreciation, and love and respect for each other.” He quoted passages from the Ramayana (Holy Book of the Hindus) and said, “Jahaa sumatee tahaa sampatee nana,” meaning, “Through unity, prosperity and progress flourished unceasingly,” and further stressed, “Aagay Chalay,” which is interpreted to mean, “Let us move forward together.”