Govt to blame on Mandela visit

If Mr Jack Warner was under the impression that he could organise, in his capacity as CONCACAF President , an official visit to this country of a man of the international stature of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, he was surely mistaken on the requirements of protocol. However, it would have taken the Government of Trinidad and Tobago very little to inform Mr. Warner in a timely fashion that it is only the Government that can organise official visits and we would now not be caught up in the very unpleasant and embarrassing uncertainty as to who is arranging Mr. Mandela’s  programme during his stay here.

It is completely shocking that one week before Mr. Mandela is scheduled to arrive we still are not sure what that programme is going to be. How Third World! The Government’s tardiness in not properly responding to Mr. Warner’s “invitations” or “requests” about the visit was clearly based on political considerations due to Mr. Warner’s association with the Opposition UNC. Let us remind the Government in case they have forgotten who Mr. Mandela is. His courageous stand against apartheid’s criminals in South Africa and his imprisonment for 27 years in the cause of the black man’s struggle for equality make his stature in the world today, second to none.

The moment it became known that he would be visiting Trinidad and Tobago as an emissary for the South African Government in its bid to host the  2010 FIFA World Cup, the Government here should have jumped at the opportunity this represented to honour such a great man as Nelson Mandela. There is no doubt that Mr. Mandela is coming to Trinidad and Tobago on behalf of the Government of South Africa. He should be the guest of the President of the Republic and he should be invited to address a joint assembly of the Houses of Parliament. There is precedent for this, in that Mr. Mandela’s colleague, Mr. Oliver Tambo, who was in exile when Mr. Mandela was in prison was invited to and did address Parliament on his visit here.

The PNM is always preaching national interest and calling on citizens to forget party political interest for the greater good. Yet here we have a scandalous indifference to Mr. Mandela’s visit, and we are certain that this is so just because Jack Warner is involved. To Mr. Warner’s credit he did communicate with the Government about the visit and did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. And irony of ironies Mr. Warner, in his justifiable annoyance at the Government, is arranging a function at the Country Club - yes the Country Club - that symbol of racial divisiveness and everything else that Mr. Mandela fought against! We hope that there is still time to save the day for Trinidad and Tobago’s name. The last thing we need right now is for Mr. Mandela to find himself caught in the middle of Trinidad and Tobago’s petty politics.