What is up with National Self -Discovery Commitee?

THE EDITOR: Eight long months have elapsed since the launch of the Presidential Committee on National Self-Discovery (Newsday Aug 13, 2003, p 11). At present I am trying in vain to discover, like Columbus, the status of the work or whereabouts of this Committee having been one of its strongest critics (Newsday Aug 20, p 12).

This Committee had intended to launch a series of community-based consultations including a TV programme geared “to diverse strategies for transmitting that knowledge to the national community in a sustained and systematic way over a period of 12 months in the first instance.”

According to the Chairman, this Committee will “be trying to go below the surface of what causes the conflict.” There has been a lot of racial conflict. Charges of racial discrimination have been upheld in our courts and calls for the implementation of the Equal Opportunities Act are an everyday occurrence.

What is this National Self-Discovery outfit doing about fulfilling the reasonable expectations it generated amongst us last August? Has it firstly discovered itself, secondly uncovered its grandiose mandate or is it languishing into oblivion like most national institutions including the Prime Minister’s competing version?

STEPHEN KANGAL
Caroni