Stop the race talk

It should not have been necessary for the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Barry Sinanan, to have to call on both Government and Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) to “to stop this race talk.” The MPs, all of whom sought and won the franchise of the electors of their respective multi-ethnic constituencies, also took an oath on becoming Members of the House to “conscientiously and impartially discharge the responsibilities to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.” Each swore to “bear true faith and allegiance to Trinidad and Tobago.” In no section or paragraph of the oath is there any allowance for the introduction of “race talk”  by an MP in the discharge of his Parliamentary duties. The Members of the House are all Honourable men and women, individuals who would or should not be prepared to adopt a dismissive posture with respect to the oaths they have taken.

We are dealing with exemplars, indeed persons who should always see themselves in this context. Their public utterances, whether in Parliament, on political platforms, or at press conferences tend to be widely reported, and seriously taken not only by their respective constituents, but by the wider community. In turn, their words, and the inflection they may put on them can influence the thinking of the ordinary constituent-on-the-street. Some of the Parliamentarians may believe that the adopting of a race posture on an issue may be mere game playing, a device employed to please members of one or the other of the country’s principal ethnic groups. There is always the danger, however, of their being received by young or otherwise immature minds as subliminal messages. At election time, or at a time of perceived crisis adversely affecting their favoured political party these signals can influence their behaviour. The Government made a monumental gaffe with respect to its Budget document, “Social and Economic Policy Framework 2004,” in its unthinking and insensitive reference to the establishing of targetted recruitment programmes for male Trinidadians, aged 17-24 “especially Afro-Trinidadian males.” It was dismissive of the concerns not only of the other ethnic groups which make up our cosmopolitan community, but taken in its widest context, of women as well.

But for both Government and Opposition members to have used this, in Parliament of all places, as a reason to introduce and/or harp on race, either for justification of the document or criticism of it, was wholly inappropriate. They may have viewed it as the normal cut and thrust of politics. We view it as vulgar, and wish to point out that in the same manner that earlier subliminal messages may have unconsciously influenced the clearly distasteful phrasing “especially Afro-Trinidadian males,” there may be persons in the community who may be inclined to accept, however unwittingly, that the Government is partial to Afro-Trinidadian males. And ipso facto indifferent to the concerns of those of other ethnic groups.  Both conclusions would be wrong. While we commend the Speaker for his rebuke of Parliamentarians, and his demand that it was high time to stop this race talk, it would nevertheless be remiss of us not to point out that this was not the first time that the good name of the House has been sullied by both inappropriate comment and behaviour by MPs.