PM Manning: No politics in race deliberations

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning gave the assurance that the re-established Committee on Race Relations will have no executive authority to make decisions on race relations in Trinidad and Tobago. Speaking to reporters prior to the Committee’s inaugural meeting at Whitehall yesterday, the Prime Minister said: “The Committee is completely independent of the Government and that the Government exercises no influence and no control over it except that the Government is a facilitator providing the facilities here at Whitehall, where the Committee will be able to conduct its work. Whatever the Committee decides, the Committee was not meant to be a pressure group nor was the Committee expected to exercise any executive authority.” However Manning said the Committee will receive minimal funding from Government for its operations. Reiterating the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) desire “to improve relations between the various races” in TT, Manning explained this was why Government decided to re-establish the Committee and the Centre of Ethnic Studies at the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus. On the former, Manning stated the Committee had given him the authority to approach an individual to serve as its moderator but he declined to reveal person’s identity. On the latter, the Prime Minister disclosed: “The Prime Minister’s Office is in discussion with UWI at this time because the University had intended to set up a similar body with a slightly differenct focus. Discussions are centring around whether we could not amalgamate all in one and form one body rather than have a proliferation of bodies that will be related to each other.”

The Prime Minister was optimistic that “this mechanism stands a reasonable chance of success.” “The intention of this Committee is to establish a dialogue because we feel that much of the animosity and the acrimony in race relations has come about because there is a misunderstanding of the positions of others. We felt that a dialogue among persons as representative as this group is, is a mechanism that can have a very positive effect on race relations in Trinidad and Tobago. It is possible that one of the outcomes of the deliberations of the Committee will be individuals use the conclusions to which they have come around this table for dissemination within their own organisation to bring about a greater level of understanding at other levels of the society,” Manning declared. Committee members include Maha Sabha General Secretary Sat Maharaj, Professor Selwyn Cudjoe, Pearl Eintou Springer, Yacoob Ali, Grafton La Borde and Deokienanan Sharma.