Farley: Racism destroys tourism, unity

STEPHON NICHOLAS

GML To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine is urg­ing politi­cians in Trinidad to show greater re­straint and ma­tu­ri­ty amid es­ca­lat­ing racial ten­sions in the coun­try.

He made the state­ment on Wednes­day dur­ing an ur­gent meet­ing of stake­hold­ers at the Masjid in Low­lands.

The meet­ing was or­gan­ised by To­ba­go Mus­lim Com­mu­ni­ty leader, Kameel Ali, who ex­pressed grave con­cern over the cur­rent cli­mate as he urged lead­ers to tone down the racial rhetoric.

The meet­ing was at­tend­ed by Au­gus­tine, Fi­nance Sec­re­tary Petal-Ann Roberts, var­i­ous re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions, civ­il-so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions, To­ba­go ACP Rishi Singh and Snr Supt Rod­hill Kirk.

Au­gus­tine said he was dis­ap­point­ed that con­ver­sa­tions about racism are dom­i­nat­ing T&T, adding that this was a threat to na­tion­al uni­ty and the econ­o­my.

He not­ed racial con­flict acts as a de­ter­rent to po­ten­tial tourists and in­vestors.

De­scrib­ing cit­i­zens as con­ve­nient­ly racist, Au­gus­tine quot­ed ca­lyp­so leg­end David Rud­der as he not­ed "how we vote is not how we par­ty."

Ac­cord­ing to Au­gus­tine, cit­i­zens face far greater eco­nom­ic chal­lenges dai­ly and the ma­jor­i­ty have no time to fo­cus on racism.

"Suf­fer­ers don't care about race," he said, draw­ing on the lyrics of the late Black Stal­in.

He added: "On­ly Trinidad and To­ba­go could de­stroy Trinidad and To­ba­go. We have to get to the place where we ap­pre­ci­ate that we have dif­fer­ing po­lit­i­cal views, that we have dif­fer­ent method­olo­gies to achieve some­times the same goals, that we vote dif­fer­ent­ly, we like dif­fer­ent colours, that we were raised in some in­stances cul­tur­al­ly dif­fer­ent to our neigh­bours, but that should not stop us from achiev­ing uni­ty as a coun­try."

Asked whether he in­tends to seek a con­ver­sa­tion with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to voice his con­cerns, Au­gus­tine said:

"That might be some­thing I need to pray about."

Au­gus­tine said his ap­proach has al­ways been to let Trinida­di­ans solve their prob­lems.

"In To­ba­go there are two things we learn: cock­roach don't go in fowl par­ty ... and some­times when ele­phants fight­ing is the lit­tle blade of grass that gets tram­pled, and for us in To­ba­go, we just try­ing not to get tram­pled."

Asked if phys­i­cal con­flict could arise if the racial di­vide is left unchecked, Au­gus­tine said this was a pos­si­bil­i­ty, but he not­ed there are many plat­forms where even the most un­e­d­u­cat­ed opin­ions get aired. He be­lieves this has al­lowed peo­ple to vent and pre­vent­ed con­flict from be­com­ing phys­i­cal.

To­ba­go Hin­du So­ci­ety trea­sur­er De­vi­ka Sam­my be­lieves ten­sions have been brew­ing for some time. She ap­pealed for heal­ing.

Regi­nald Vi­dale, head of the Dr Er­ic Williams Memo­r­i­al Com­mit­tee main­tains the sit­u­a­tion was en­tire­ly pre­ventable. He called for a meet­ing with the Prime Min­is­ter and Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les.