Maharaj: Time to honour our own super achievers

A STRONG call has gone out to the Indo-Trinidadian community “to stand up and be counted as you are now in the  majority according to the last population census.” Parsuram Maharaj, President of the Global Organisaion of the People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), told a gathering at the Divali Nagar on Monday night, that the Indo-Trinidadian community had been shabbily treated in the National Awards scheme over the years. He said the time had come for an organisation such as the GOPIO to put matters right and honour “our own people who are super achievers in many ways  in the process of nation building.” Maharaj said few people in the country are able to name the panel that deals with the selection of recipients for National Awards and the GOPIO would correct that grave error and make the names well known throughout the country.

He said the system would be transparent and only appropriate persons would  be honoured based on wide ranging criteria. Maharaj said Indo-Trinidadians who were eligible under the National Award Scheme and who had been cast aside due to political and other reasons, would now be honoured. “We are woefully under-represented in the numbers receiving National Awards  since 1969 and we intend to correct that situation with the coming into being of GOPIO — an organisation that stands  for equality and justice as far as the Indo-Trinidad community is concerned,” Maharaj said. Under the present arrangement, he said, “It is either they are under-achievers or they are being discriminated against.” “Enough is enough. They have changed names when it is convenient for them but they are unable to name any building or street after an Indo-Trinidadian so you can see which way the wind is blowing,” Maharaj said.