Letter: Lee Sing slams Hinds for "black" comments

Fitzgerald Hinds

I read with concern the comments attri­buted to Fitzgerald Hinds about the PNM’s (People’s National Movement) political leader’s “blackness”.
 
I read, too, of his lightly hidden references to Mrs Penny Beckles-Robinson. “I don’t want to behave like no Penny; no cent, five cent, ten cent; this thing call for dollar!” And, of course, the dreaded Rastafarian went on and on. All of this happened in the presence of Dr Keith Rowley, the party’s political leader and, if history is kind, the country’s next prime minister.
 
If Dr Rowley becomes the prime minister, how will he govern a very plural country such as Trinidad and Tobago with a dreaded Rasta­farian at his side—who sees no virtue in “Penny” and believes only “dollar” can do the job?
 
The PNM I know under Dr Eric Williams, Mr George Chambers and Mr Patrick Manning was inclusive to a fault. Might I remind the “sober, educated, level-headed” Mr Hinds that at no time other than now has race so openly and destructively been used within the PNM. 

If this is Dr Rowley’s opening salvo, as a party member, but more importantly, a patriot of Trinidad and Tobago, I don’t want to know what his closing shots would be like. 

I implore Mrs Beckles-Robinson to resist the temptation to respond, and I demand of our party members the highest ethics throughout the coming months.
 
To score points is one thing, to destroy all the party represents to score cheap and destructive points is another.
 
Within all political parties, there will be different groups or teams, if you may, but such teams ultimately belong to a team of rivals. However, rivalry must be guided by higher principles. It can’t be victory at all cost.
 
I appeal to the dreaded Rastaman to cease and desist. Put another way, stop it now—the nation is watching.
 
Louis Lee Sing
(reproduced from the Sunday Express)