A letter to PM Kamla

Dear Ma' am,

It would be very remiss of me if I did not sincerely congratulate you for the good judgement that you have exercised in selecting Justice Carmona as the President elect of Trinidad and Tobago. 

I was privileged to have met him at the UWI in 1982 and was able to follow his illustrious career from University student to President Elect of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In Justice Carmona we have a President who is wise, humble, non-partisan, private , intelligent, easy going, a natural diplomat and a lover of people. 

Madame, I do not wish to be disrespectful, but I sincerely thank you for listening to the voice of God on this occasion and not the voice of the people; especially those who thought that the post of President should be decided on which religion did not get a chance as yet; and particularly those who were of the view that politicians should be pulled from the cut and thrust of party politics into the position. 

I also wish to congratulate you for the very statesmanlike manner in which you handled the process of selection. It was a demonstration of the "new politics" for which we all yearn. 

I would like to ask you to do me, yourself and the nation a favour please. 

Kindly make the inauguration of the 5th President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago a public affair at the National Stadium or similar venue, maybe a southern Stadium, given where he is from and let it be an occasion where we can give God thanks for bringing us to this place and recommit ourselves as a nation to peace, love, joy and nation building. 

Can it be a day in which we love up the red, white and black and remember who we are as a nation and a people and ask God's blessings on our PASSOVER from where we are to where we should be? 

Can it be a day in which we shed our hurts and pains and recognize that without exemption we have come out of the same experience of abuse and we have no one to help us heal but each other?

Karen Bart-Alexander