Renaming Emancipation Day meaningless

THE EDITOR: Dr Keith Christopher Rowley’s recent statement that Cabinet plans to change the name of Emancipation Day to African Emancipation Day is meaningless.

What are more newsworthy is the PNM’s callous disregard of the UN General Assembly’s Declaration of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2004-2025), the disrespectful attitude to the TT Reparations Committee, and just recently, the lamentation of Camille Robertson-Regis that she is seriously affected by the decline in African communities.

These are a few matters that show the lack of concern the PNM has for Africans.

We must never forget that it took 15 years of lobbying, from 1970, before a public holiday was granted for Emancipation. And it was not until 1996 that the day was internationalised, on the initiative of the National Joint Action Committee and the Caribbean Historical Society.

Any time this present government makes a move to involve Africans in any meaningful aspect of the narrative of national development, beware, it is merely to tie up the PNM base more firmly for the elites who dominate that party.

Now a general election is due and the PNM has to make up for lost ground among Africans. Violent crime is out of control. The gangs are centred in the PNM's African base and behave just like those in Haiti in terms of their attitude to authority.

In addition, there could very well be a scourge of mental illness that is really troubling among some in the society, including our Afro-Trini brothers and sisters. Likewise, education and training have suffered in mainly African communities simply because there is no credible motivation toward long-term success.

Ask Minister Robinson-Regis, she may be able to tell you better than I.

I will not be deceived by what is now being presented. The rash of public relations about what the government is doing is nothing more than the customary road-paving that comes in the run-up to every election.

However, the public relations will backfire because there is an adage, possibly from Abraham Lincoln, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time!”

I think Dr Rowley, Robinson-Regis and the rest of the government and the PNM should bear this in mind.

AIYEGORO OME

Mt Lambert