(Trinidad Express) Political leader of the Congress of the People (COP) and Minister of Legal Affairs Prakash Ramadhar is distancing his party from racial comments made by National Security Minister Jack Warner on Friday.
Warner sought to dismiss Friday’s public march in Port of Spain, called by several sectors of the society, including the labour movement and Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), as only being supported by one ethnic group.
But Ramadhar yesterday warned politicians about going down “the race road”.
His warning was also supported by newly elected COP chairman Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan.
“It is not healthy. The country is too small to be divided on race,” Ramadhar said.
“We in the COP do not see race…we see people. The COP has no racial base; we are for everybody.”
He warned, “There are many who raise this issue but it is not healthy. It is divisive.”
The COP leader further added that politicians have to be careful about making racial comments since it brings a lot of “venom and hate in the society”.
Asked why there was silence among the leadership of the ruling People’s Partnership with regard to Warner’s comments, Ramadhar said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was very diplomatic in her handling of such issues within the party.
He said her first step would be to have a “private word with you” and then deal with the matter further if necessary.
He made it clear, however, that he was not speaking on the PM’s behalf but was noting her response in general to such issues.
The Legal Affairs minister spoke with the media at the start of a COP walkabout in Arima yesterday morning, following which the party held a legal clinic at the Arima Town Hall for members of the public.
Ramadhar was not at all critical of the street protest against the Section 34 fiasco or calls for the resignation of Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and Warner, but instead saw Friday’s march as the people’s right to “exercise their democratic freedom”.
“I believe that people have a right to bring their issues to the fore, and when people speak, we listen. People have a right to vent,” he said, adding it must also be appreciated that marchers bring a level of instability in the minds of the population.
“Yes, they have a right to exercise their democratic freedom, and we endorse that, but we must be careful of political opportunists who are intent on their own personal gains at the expense of the country’s gain. We believe we need to know what is real and what is a distraction,” the COP leader stated.
He reminded that some of the very same people who voted for Section 34 in the Parliament were among the marchers.
Asked if he felt the protest was a wake-up call for the Government, Ramadhar, whose party is one of the partners in the People’s Partnership Government, said: “We are alert to the national issues. We must listen to the people.”
Seepersad-Bachan, who is focused on building and expanding the COP base, said the Government must listen to the “people’s concerns”.
She said some of the issues that are being raised have merit while others don’t.
The chairman added that now the COP internal election was behind them, all hands were on deck in moving forward.
And Member of Parliament for Arima Rodger Samuel promised that Arimians will have a proper hospital on or before 2015.
“It is my hope that it will come under my watch,” he said.
Samuel added that the tendering process had started.
