Welcome, Mr President

WE JOIN with the rest of the country in welcoming President Max Richards who was ceremoniously installed into office on Monday. We are particularly pleased because his accession may be seen as formally concluding a long period of political uncertainty and turmoil which not only precluded the election of a new Head of State but also exacerbated the divisiveness to which, unfortunately, our society is prone. It was the destiny of his predecessor Arthur NR Robinson to preside over the critical and unprecedented times that followed the 18-18 electoral tie of December 2001 and to remain in office beyond his allotted time. Now with an elected government and new President in office, the country can return to the stability and progress it once enjoyed and, hopefully, to the task of building a united and socially harmonious nation.

It is pleasing to note that, in his inaugural speech, President Richards acknowledges the challenge our country faces. “No one who is alive and thinking at this time,” he says, “can be sanguine about our unity and about our vision of ourselves. There are in this country people of every religion, people of every race and colour — black, brown, white, yellow — and people like myself who find it hard to separate out the different entities that have been blended in their formation.” It says much about President Richards and his understanding of the role he must play in our current circumstances when he declares: “I give assurance and serve warning that I will allow nothing and no one to prevent me from bringing to the tasks before us qualities of independence, even-handedness, impartiality, objectivity, fairness and consideration for all.” His assurance and his warning, his resolve “to serve the whole nation without fear and without favour” are addressed to the society as a whole but President Richards, it seems to us, is also answering all those persons who may have doubts about his individuality and his non-partisanship, those who had sought to embroil him in the controversies of the recent past by attempting to link him personally and actively with a political party.

Hopefully, with this assurance, we can consign that episode to our forgettable history and now look forward to a new era. Our growing maturity as a nation would demand that every citizen, regardless of his creed or political affiliation, should consider the President as his own and pay him the respect, regard and consideration his office deserves. We note with considerable satisfaction the observation of Mr Richards that the first person to congratulate him after the results were declared was the Opposition candidate in the Electoral College exercise. “I consider the generosity, graciousness and good wishes of Mr Ganace Ramdial to be a signal to our people that although there was a contested election, consensus after the decision is a desired and possible goal,” the President noted.

It is a positive sign, also, that several members of the opposition party attended Monday's swearing-in ceremony and offered the President their congratulations at the reception which followed at President's House. In recounting the personal style of his three predecessors in office, Mr Richards may be making the point that he also would be bringing his own personality and his own concerns to the demands of this high office. With his life-long career in higher education, no  less could be expected of him. The country, we believe, could also be assured that our new President, while being a Trini to the bone, would grace the office of Head of State and symbolic leader of our nation with the poise and dignity it requires.