A history of race-baiting

PNM lady vice chairman Camille Robinson-Regis. File photo/Ayanna Kinsale
PNM lady vice chairman Camille Robinson-Regis. File photo/Ayanna Kinsale

THE EDITOR: At the PNM meeting on May 26, Camille Robinson-Regis repeatedly called “Kamla Susheila Persad-Bissessar" several times to the loud cheers and laughter from supporters who were gathered in Arima.”

The reality is that Robinson-Regis was mocking the name of the Opposition Leader. Persad-Bissessar has responded appropriately, in my opinion.

The PNM has a history against other parties opposed to it.

In 1956, the PNM used pictures against its opponents – “Show me your capra.” (FC Brassington, The Politics of Opposition, 1975).

Eric Williams, on April 1, 1951 in “The Danger for Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indian Nation,” described Indians as “the recalcitrant and hostile minority.” But it was Williams and the PNM who destroyed the Federation, not the DLP – 1 from 10 leaves zero (Eric Williams, Inward Hunger, 1969).

Dr Winston Mahabir in, In and Out of Politics (1978), referred to Eric Will’s “savagely contemptuous references to the Indian illiterates of the country area who were threatening to submerge the masses…He referred derisively to an Indian from Coon Coon Village, evoking peals of laughter with his scorn tone.”

Robinson-Regis on May 26, used the following language against the Opposition Leader: “cowardly deceptive, dishonest, disingenuous individual…” PNM supporters cheered loudly and laughed.

The Opposition Leader has responded at the Penal Rock Road Hindu School and the Princes Town UNC meeting. The PNM is saying “race-baiting.” They are correct – since 1956, the PNM has been responsible for race-baiting.

KAMAL PERSAD

Carapichaima

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"A history of race-baiting"

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