TT’S NAME TARNISHED

Former United National Congress Government Minister Manohar Ramsaran, who is reported in a Canadian publication as having said that thousands of Indo-Trinidadians had signed petitions requesting American, British and Canadian Missions in Trinidad and Tobago to grant them sanctuary because of alleged racially targeted kidnappings, should withdraw his outrageous statement as well as apologise to the country.

Ramsaran has also been quoted as stating that 3,000 Trinidad and Tobago nationals had applied for refugee status in Canada. The Canadian High Commission and senior officials of the United States Embassy in Port-of-Spain have already dismissed the reports as having no truth in them. Despite several injurious statements about Trinidad and Tobago either made overseas by some United National Congress officials or published on the UNC European website, the party’s political leader, Basdeo Panday, could still say he had no information which remotely suggested that the UNC was trying to tarnish the country’s international reputation.

Meanwhile, Ramsaran, although his reported statements to the Canadian publication have received wide coverage and widely published denials, has apparently not been called upon by his party, which formed the administration from 1995-2001, to explain his position. Instead, his political leader, Panday, has remarked somewhat flippantly that it was normal for persons interviewed by journalists to express their views. Former Prime Minister Panday’s remark is unfortunately misleading. Journalists do not merely expect interviewees to express views regardless, but to be factual. In turn, what is normal in the practice of journalism is that when outrageous statements, such as those made by Ramsaran, are offered to a journalist in the course of an interview,  it is for the journalist to obtain the other party’s or parties’ side(s) of the story. And particularly in this case where Ramsaran’s reported statement was damaging to this country and could have conveyed the impression as well that the Canadian High Commission had incorrectly provided the figure of 3,000, double checking would have been a cut above mere routine.

The denial by the Canadian High Commissioner Simon Wade as well as by senior officials of the United States Embassy has clearly demonstrated that Ramsaran could not have been correct. In addition, Panday’s carte blanche position of its being normal with respect to views being expressed during the course of an interview, especially bearing in mind the comments made by Ramsaran, is strange coming from someone who was not only Prime Minister of this country, but by virture of being Leader of the Opposition is the alternative Prime Minister. Trinidad and Tobago’s name has been tarnished as a result of the damaging statements made by Manohar Ramsaran, who must have realised that as a former Government Minister his “robber talk” would have carried more injurious weight than that of the average person. Ramsaran should do the honourable thing and issue a public statement that what he said to the representative of the Canadian publication was wrong and apologise. Trinidad and Tobago does indeed have its problems that are worrisome but instead of trying to do more harm by making outrageous statements, an elected representative of the people should show a little more loyalty to his country.