Wrong UN vote

THE EDITOR: Please allow me to comment on the decision by our Government to abstain from the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly that called upon the Trump administration to rescind its decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to put the US embassy there.

This resolution was similar to that put forward to the UN Security Council where all members of the Security Council voted in favour of the resolution while the United States vetoed it.

What is really sad is the excuse given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “TT’s abstaining in Thursday’s vote on the United Nations resolution rejecting US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”

Our abstention was in no way a rejection of Donald Trump’s decision to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem.

In fact, this explanation is what we would call “spin.” It was a dereliction of our duty as a member of the community of nations to speak truth to power and to reject the egregious bullying of the US.

If we really wanted to “reject” Mr Trump’s move, we would have voted in favour of the resolution as did our brave Caribbean neighbours – Guyana, Barbados, Suriname, Grenada, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Belize. Instead we succumbed to US pressure and abstained.

Furthermore, to add insult to injury, we concocted the following response drawing on our admirable positions in the past when we were in the vanguard of the Non-Aligned Movement stating that we “have been ahead of our time in supporting a One China policy and in standing in opposition to the continuation of the embargo against Cuba.”

Certainly, our first prime minister, Dr Eric Williams, who marched on the American base in Chaguaramas in 1960 to regain control of our lands, would recoil in horror at our abstention.

How can the Ministry defend its position when only a few years ago back in November 2011,when the PNM was in opposition, the then former minister of Foreign Affairs rebuked the then PP government for its abstention on a UN vote to allow the Palestinians to become a member of UNESCO?

Here’s what former Foreign Affairs minister Paula Gopee-Scoon said then:

“The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has stood silent on its justification for abstention. It is established that we have supported the idea of self-determination for countries in Africa and the Middle East, and therefore the reasoning behind this position remains unclear. We are known to have always stood on the side of democracy and human rights.”

This is indeed a sad day for this country.

Ralph Ashton via e-mail