As the country celebrates its diamond jubilee, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says Government could not have picked a better time to launch a library in honour of the man who led Trinidad and Tobago to independence, Dr Eric Williams.
Speaking at the launch of the Dr Eric Williams Memorial Library which, according to the Prime Minister, was 11 years in the making, he acknowledged the project was completed at a time when resources were needed in the fight against COVID-19.
“It took during the period of pandemic a kind of resilience to allocate the resources to do this when the demand for those resources appeared to have been greater elsewhere,” Rowley said.
UDECOTT told Guardian Media that the estimated cost of the library was $12,560,625 vat inclusive.
But as Rowley spoke, he singled out UDECOTT for taking on the project.
“As we accept this from the taxpayers of Trinidad and Tobago, I go back to Mason Hall Government School. The motto of that school was good work or none, good work or none, and that is why I want to identify Mr Noel Garcia and the team at UDECOTT to have kept that motto when the pressure to do this on a less grander scale was what was on offer,” he said.
Rowley said the Knox Street, Port-of-Spain location, opposite the area in Woodford Square where Dr Williams famously held many public meetings and lectures, is iconic and historical to the people of this country.
“But this being the place where a bucket was let down; had to be a large bucket with a strong bottom because here is where the concept of our nationhood was discussed, crystalised and I dare say grasped,” he added.
The PM admitted that in 2020, he was faced with the decision of walking away from politics but chose to stay on and fight the pandemic.
But, according to him, that was not the only reason.
“It was not only because I thought I would stay and lead through the COVID fight but because I would have been hugely disappointed to have ended my career and not being able to do what we are doing today (yesterday),” he explained.
Among the memorabilia to be housed at the Dr Eric Williams Memorial Library will be over 7,000 of his books, published and unpublished works, research papers, his many photos, newspaper clippings, a replica of his private study and even love letters he wrote to his wife.
In the coming weeks, the University of the West Indies will start the process of moving all the material into the location and when that is complete the public will be allowed to see them.
UWI Principal, Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, said her school has been the guardian of “this treasure” for a long time.
“It has already done much, for example, it has been a key resource for many academic offerings,” she said, adding there will now be the opportunity for it to reach many more people.
Williams’ daughter, Erica Williams-Connell, was particularly pleased the library had finally become a reality, adding its contents will allow people to understand not just her father but the father of the nation.
“These artefacts speak to a more complete picture of the man rather than the myth, they have enlivened history and challenged the intellectual capacities of the thousands of students of the region and abroad who have visited the museum (at UWI) over the years and who have offered heartfelt testimonials,” she said.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who is on an official visit for the independence celebrations, thanked Williams for his role in creating Caricom in July 1973.
“We all can recall his famous declaration one from 10 leave nought, occasioned when Jamaica left the West Indies Federation in 1961,” he said.
Holness said as the first Prime Minister of Jamaica, born after independence, he considered his presence at the event yesterday and to be part of T&T’s diamond jubilee celebration to be a symbolic closing of the circles.
