Panday: Change the watchwords of TT

Panday was speaking at the National Council for Indian Culture (NCIC) Hall of Fame induction at the Divali Nagar in Chaguanas on Saturday where he was an inductee.

In his address, Panday said the world was a global village which is seeing a constant struggle for space and recognition by various communities, tribes, ethnicities, clan and religions.

He also said that persons have suggested that the proliferation of commemorative public holidays in this country was perpetuating divisiveness in society.

“They advocate instead the abolition of all existing holidays and celebrations that divide our people such as Indian Arrival Day, Emancipation, Corpus Christi, and Eid-ul-Fitr.

The replacement suggested must be a single, all embracing, all inclusive, national holiday in celebration of, and emphasis on, unity instead of the multifarious schism in our nation,” he said.

“While we call for a peaceful and harmonious society, the answer for the establishment of a peaceful and progressive society it is not to put them into a melting pot and deny them their identity, the beauty of their uniqueness,” he said.

“Our history is replete with denial, debasement, and demeaning of one group by and against another. Even our national watchwords insinuate the debasement,” he said.

“Who must tolerate whom?” he asked.

He also paid tribute to the late trade unionist Adrian Cola Rienzi, saying he (Rienzi) has been ignored by local historians, including the University of the West Indies.

“It was as if there was some kind of morbid fear among our academics and intellectuals that if they wrote about people like Rienzi their academic careers would be adversely affected,” he said.

As the former president of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Union, Panday said he renamed the union’s headquarters in Couva after Rienzi not for gratification but to send a message that those who served this country would not be ignored.

In a jovial tone, he said he feared that a cemetery would be named after him.

“When I left Parliament I asked my friends and foes alike not to name anything after me while I was alive,” he said.