The Prime Min­is­ter said the con­tri­bu­tions of the East In­di­ans in this coun­try could be iden­ti­fied vis­i­bly in med­i­cine, law, the sci­ences, en­gi­neer­ing, lit­er­a­ture, arts, man­u­fac­tur­ing, in the suc­cess­ful fam­i­ly busi­ness­es in the ser­vices sec­tor, and in the high­est lev­els of pub­lic ser­vice.

He added, “I main­tain that there is no con­tra­dic­tion, be­tween a per­son rec­og­niz­ing his or her an­ces­tral her­itage, on one hand, and pledg­ing un­wa­ver­ing sup­port to the na­tion-state of Trinidad and To­ba­go, on the oth­er.”

The Prime Min­is­ter went fur­ther in stat­ing, “I be­lieve that, at this point, all cit­i­zens need to mo­bilise and fo­cus on our col­lec­tive ef­forts and hopes for a bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go. To do oth­er­wise is to be haunt­ed by “eth­nic ghosts,” and to per­pet­u­ate the agen­das of those among us, who re­fused to see hope — but in­stead on­ly fear, racial di­vi­sive­ness, ha­tred, bit­ter­ness, un­rest, and dis­sen­sion.