Yvonne Ba­boolal

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has in her hands the so­lu­tion to end­ing the pol­i­tics of race that di­vides T&T, says Bernard Pan­tin, jour­nal­ist and for­mer ad­vis­er to ex-prime min­is­ter Arthur NR Robin­son. Pan­tin gave the ad­vice yes­ter­day while giv­ing ev­i­dence in the com­mis­sion of en­quiry in­to the Ju­ly 1990 at­tempt­ed over­throw of the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion gov­ern­ment by Ja­maat al Mus­limeen in­sur­gents.

Pro­gramme man­ag­er at Trinidad & To­ba­go Tele­vi­sion (TTT) at the time, Pan­tin played a key role in help­ing to dis­able the trans­mis­sion sta­tion at Gran Cou­va and block Ja­maat leader Yasin Abu Bakr from broad­cast­ing to the na­tion from TTT, which the in­sur­rec­tion­ists had seized.

He helped set up a makeshift tele­vi­sion sta­tion at the army's Camp Og­den, St James, to al­low gov­ern­ment min­is­ters to is­sue broad­casts, and as­sist­ed in the re­lease of TTT hostages. But it was long­ing for the days of the NAR-which won 33 of the 36 par­lia­men­tary seats in the 1986 elec­tion-when the ma­jor­i­ty of cit­i­zens put aside race to work to­geth­er to build T&T, that seemed up­per­most on Pan­tin's mind as he tes­ti­fied be­fore the com­mis­sion.

He crit­i­cised for­mer prime min­is­ters Patrick Man­ning and Bas­deo Pan­day, whom he blamed for the pol­i­tics of race that has gov­erned T&T since the demise of the NAR in 1991. While NAR prime min­is­ter Robin­son lay shot and bleed­ing on the floor of Par­lia­ment nei­ther Man­ning nor Pan­day stood up and con­demned what was tak­ing place, Pan­tin said.

"That set the tone for what took place 22 years af­ter. These are the two peo­ple who gov­erned the coun­try for 22 years af­ter." Up to now he has not heard a sat­is­fac­to­ry rea­son why they were not in Par­lia­ment in Ju­ly 27, 1990, the day the Mus­limeen staged the up­ris­ing, he added. Pol­i­tics has been dom­i­nat­ed by race since, he said, with the coun­try di­vid­ed along eth­nic lines be­tween the two main po­lit­i­cal par­ties led by Man­ning and Pan­day.

Pan­tin said T&T has al­ways been 40 per cent Afro, 40 per cent In­do and 20 per cent oth­er. He said he be­longs to the "oth­er" cat­e­go­ry and con­sid­ers him­self an in­de­pen­dent thinker from the "third force" who sup­port the Con­gress of the Peo­ple. He said the eth­nic di­vide has widened since 1990.

"That's what sad­dens me be­tween 1990 and now. "If I were to say what would be the so­lu­tion, I would say it lies in the hands of the Prime Min­is­ter." "If the Prime Min­is­ter to­day saw her­self as be­ing non-aligned to any of the five po­lit­i­cal par­ties in the coali­tion, and makes some se­ri­ous de­ci­sions as they re­late to the coun­try, we would be clos­er to where we were.

"When the cen­sus says we are 33 per cent Afro, 33 per cent In­do and 33 per cent mixed, then we have a chance," Pan­tin said.