A video posted on the Internet showing a speech by former Prime Minister Patrick Manning warns that Trinidad and Tobago faces the possibility of civil unrest if it doesn’t handle its diversity properly.
“If you don’t manage the differences that exist among a people, those differences conspire to divide rather than to unite,” he said in the speech recorded Monday night at a private meeting in his San Fernando East Constituency.
He gave a history of race relations internationally that have led to problems in societies, causing divisions and coups.
“Don’t believe it cannot happen here, God is not a Trini, do not believe it cannot happen. It is the biggest mistake you could make,” Manning stated. He said all the race talk across the country would not be of any use. “You see all this talk about race, it gets us nowhere,” he added.
Commenting on controversial statements that have led the dismissal of former chairman of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Nizam Mohammed, Manning said Mohammed’s contention was not that there “aren’t enough Indians in the leadership of the Police Service, it is that there are too many Africans.”
Manning said Mohammed’s statement wasn’t in support of any group, it was against a group.
"The one mistake that we in Trinidad would make is to assume that cannot happen in this country. Indeed my friends, it can and it will if we do not conduct our business in a manner that is designed to prevent it,” the former PM stated.
Manning advised PNM supporters to be wary of what he called a public relations campaign by the People’s Partnership Government.
He also made reference to the controversial Guanapo church. “What does a church have to do with the governance of T&T, somebody tell me please?” Manning asked. He also wondered why “they eh lock me up yet.”
Watch the video Sando East Educational Series - 4-11-2011 - Patrick Manning - Part III.mp4
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