I would not like the current election campaign to be based on race.
I hope it will be a campaign for justice whether it is to prosecute the perjurer/s, the bag men, the trusted directors of Udecott who were “derelict in their duties” or those who “failed to protect the public purse.”
However for the benefit of the younger community, I would like to recall that 40 years ago when I was much younger, a young man named Geddes Granger (now know as Makandal Daaga) leader of NJAC, led throngs of young people across the country punching their fists in the air shouting, “power, power to the people” and demanding “black power”.
I will admit that at that time, the almost daily NJAC protest demonstrations scared the s.... out of me.
One of the grouses of NJAC was the absence of colour in the banks. In those days bank employees were mostly French Creoles, whites, mulattoes, and Chinese like myself.
This changed drastically after 1970 due to NJAC’s protests. Today as we go into the banks, we can witness the true racial diversity that makes Trinidad and Tobago what it is.
People of colour in TT must know that Makandal Daaga is the man who did most for them without exploiting them. He is now very mature and mellow and deserves the opportunity to serve the country if he wishes.
I do not recall any widespread or major violence by NJAC protestors. Manning is free to criticise the atmosphere that prevailed in those tense days 40 years ago.
In more recent times, he was also free to meet secretly and make deals or arrangements with Abu Bakr the “insurrectionist” who led the 1990 coup which resulted in about 28 deaths and widespread looting and destruction in our country.
PATRICK J WILLIAMS | Diego Martin
1 comment:
If it were not for the Black Power Movement in T&T people of colour in this country would have nothing. Before then the PNM was in power yet they did nothing for people of colour.
Remember, when the then leader returned to T&T from England, he aligned himself with the elite of T&T as he regarded the common man as uneducated and crass. In 1956 he called Indian people a "recalcatrant people riddled with hookworms" because they preferred to back R. Capildeo. So it became convenient for him to employ the tactics of the English of divide and conquer.
I always say thank God for the Black Power Movement and the Oil Boom as without either of them, we would be nowhere as the PNM has no vision and are unable to provide true vision, they only know how to throw money around.
Food for thought: how could the daughter of an ex-teacher who became Prime Minister be regarded in fortune magazine as one of the richest women in the world and could afford to then turn around and offer the Gov't money. Where did it come from? Remember John O'Halaran?
History my people, history, learn from it and remmeber it well for it is repeating itself.
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