‘I am not afraid’

House Speaker Barry Sinanan met yesterday with Special Branch personnel to discuss new security arrangements as a consequence of a threat to his life made in a poison pen letter, which was sent to his office last week. “They (the Special Branch) will do their job,” the Speaker said.

Sinanan told Newsday that never in his “wildest dreams” did he ever imagine that someone could write such a vile letter. “You know you read about these things; you hear about them, but you don’t think somebody could say that about you. That was the first thing that struck me (on reading the correspondence).” Sinanan added: “When you hold a job like this, it is not that you don’t expect some sort of thing (flak) but it was the depth to which this threatening letter went. It was just so vile.” The Speaker stated that the baseness and viciousness of the letter was not something to which he was accustomed.  “I don’t see people in the same way as others see them. I see Trinidadians of whatever background as Trinidadians. To me once you are a Trinidadian, you are just a Trinidadian. And a lot of people don’t see that...I don’t see the ethnic thing that people see. I think it has to do with the way I was brought up. You know, if you didn’t grow up that way (then you don’t see it).”

The letter writer accused Sinanan, whom he described as a “low down swine,” of helping the PNM institute a system of apartheid in Trinidad and Tobago. “This country is ruled by apes, chimps and monkeys...When Indians speak out against racial discrimination you try to put a clamp on them...It is time Indians form a secret society to assassinate those who put obstacles in their way. I am sure you would be the first to go. You are an Indian with a nigger heart. A damn disgrace to your race.” The writer also called on God to put a curse on Sinanan and his family. Asked whether he felt particularly vulnerable because of the kinds of feeling, the kind of ethnic anger and hatred that motivated the writer of the correspondence, Sinanan said he believed that God protected those who protected themselves. “I believe that the Lord would only help you if you help yourself. So it is not that I am not aware or cognisant of the threat,” he said, adding that there were certain decisions that he knew he had to make as a result of the threat.

Stressing that he would not be foolhardly to downplay the importance of the letter, Sinanan said he had seen the country change tremendously over the last three years in the way that he would never have previously believed. “If I were living abroad, I would say I couldn’t believe it. But I am here and I have seen it unfolding. It is a new reality that one has to get accustomed to...I suppose it comes with the territory but I have to take precautions. I am not one of those people who would say ‘it is not going to happen here, or it would never happen to me.’ The last time people said that was in reference to the 1990 attempted coup.” Sinanan said the letter was clearly written by “no common gardener or rabble-rouser.” However Sinanan made it equally clear that he was not going to “run from” his job or modify in any way that way he discharged his responsibilities as Presiding Officer of the nation’s Parliament.

He emphasised that he would continue to discharge his functions without fear and favour and “fearlessly.” He also stressed that he had no plan to migrate or live anywhere else in the world. Prime Minister Patrick Manning on Sunday gave the commitment that Government would provide protection to the Speaker and his family in the wake of the death threat.