Gonzales, apologise for cheap race rant

THE EDITOR: Marvin  Gonzales’s recent question – whether we now live in “Bangladesh or Delhi” – isn’t clever commentary; it’s cheap race talk, plain and simple.

Indo-Trinidadians/Tobagonians are not visitors in their own country. Their ancestors tilled the same cane fields, taught in the same classrooms, and served in the same regiments that helped build modern TT. To suggest otherwise insults everyone who calls these islands home.

When politicians run out of ideas they often reach for division and scare tactics to appease their support base.

We saw voters reject that on April 28 when the PNM suffered a stinging defeat, not because of race, but because people were fed up with:

1. Record crime: Murders hitting new highs in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

2. Shrinking wallets: An economy 20 per cent smaller than a decade ago.

3. Vanishing jobs: 60,000 fewer people working now than in 2015.

4. Energy chaos: Petrotrin shut down, gas revenues flat, and foreign exchange hard to access.

As a member of the opposition, Gonzales has a duty to offer responsible representation – holding the government to account, proposing fixes, and speaking for all citizens – not sowing discord out of self-serving desperation.

None of us voted for politicians to stand at a podium and insult fellow citizens as foreigners.

We elected them to fix roads, curb crime, and put bread on the table.

There is no place in public life for leaders who stoop to racial dog-whistles just to score cheap points. It’s offensive, it sets a poor example for our young people, and it drags the national conversation into the gutter.

So here is what I would like to ask of all right-thinking citizens in this country:

* Media houses: Expose and condemn this divisive rhetoric.

* Churches, temples, mosques, and mandirs: Say, loudly, that it is wrong.

* Everyday citizens: Whether your roots trace to Africa, India, China, Grenada, or St Vincent, call it out whenever you hear it.

Race talk is the last refuge of a party fresh out of ideas – with crime, jobs and the rising cost of living already on our backs, stirring up ethnic tension should never be on anyone’s to-do list, no matter how desperate some politicians get after a sound beating at the polls.

So, MP Gonzales, apologise now for that raw race rant or continue to hang your head in shame.

DAVID LAW

via e-mail