By Raffique Shah
August 08, 2026

If you listen to our politicians address the issue of race, you’d swear that they in no way seek to influence voters on race, colour or religion. They would tell you they have always been fair in judging their constituents: they see the electorates as one people. They do not count votes by ethnicity, and when in office they treat their supporters equitably.

How I wish all this were true. Race has always been a critical element in electoral politics. It straddles the country from post to post, corner to corner, as Andre Tanker once sang. As far back as the first election under adult suffrage, it has been the preferred weapon of many a party leader. I dare you to challenge me on that.

One only has to look at the live broadcast of any UNC political meeting and you will see the camera singling out Afro-Trinidadians in particular. This gives a notion of an across-the-board support for that party. While there is no denying that in a swing year, the UNC captures a significant number of PNM votes, the converse is also true, where the PNM has traditionally garnered support of Indo-Trinidadians.

Race will always exist as long as politicians are ready to sacrifice equity and fairness on the altar of power. But it is one thing for any party to solicit votes that would normally go with the opposing party; it’s quite another, though, when the leaders of some parties openly seek votes by buying off people’s ethnicity with personal promises made.

The promises that never made it to the pages of their manifesto. Gifts are offered as bribes for votes in areas where race normally determines which way the seat goes.

How many times have we heard on the PNM platforms: take the fridge and stove and still vote PNM?

Or the UNC’s: take their ten days, draw yuh money, and vote UNC. All tactics and gimmicks used to buy over opposing safe-seat votes.

As long as politicians weaponise race, we will continue to see distasteful events like the one that occurred last weekend at the Emancipation Support Committee’s commemoration of Emancipation Day.

A ceremony meant to remember their ancestral past, the suffering, the torture and host of other painful and inhumane treatments of the African people was marred by the uncouth behaviour of a few persons attending the event.

The fact that many prominent persons sat by and listened as these people verbally assaulted the Minister of Culture, Michelle Benjamin, is absolutely appalling.

Set aside the race issue for a moment, imagine big be-garbed men sitting and looking on while this was happening. And, then we wonder why so many women lose their lives to violence each year. That incident should never have happened.

In my day, it would never have. On a number of occasions back then, when such extreme left-wing activists attempted to sabotage meetings I chaired, I walked up to them, issued stern warnings, then continued my duties with no further interruptions. The truth is, I collared many of them and physically evicted them. I was not about to put up with their nasty vitriol.

As leaders, that is how you act. I am not saying that you have to get physical, but I am saying that you have a responsibility, that if you invite guest speakers to your function, you must protect them from any form of assault.

Also, as a leader, you do not put your tail between your legs and retreat to your home when you are invited to a day of celebration by one of the biggest committees, commemorating one of the most significant events of the 19th century. It was a display of cowardice and showed great disrespect to the people hosting and in attendance.

I think about the events of 1970 (before, during and after) that saw the races united for a common cause, a fight against imperialism and racism. One that saw a united Trinidad and Tobago, where the sugar workers and the oil workers came together to fight against their common enemy that sought to infringe upon the rights of citizens.

Perhaps it was a different time back then. Maybe the people were hungrier, physically and metaphorically back then, too. Whatever the differences, to remove a common enemy, we must unite.

We must move past the colour of skin and the texture of our hair, particularly when we go to the polls.

Race is an issue across the world over which people are prepared to die. It is also one of the few issues for which they kill. We do not want that seeping back into our society which our fore-parents had worked hard to overcome over a century ago.

One last word to our lady Prime Minister—the fire you are stoking about race, and race relations today, will most definitely burn you tomorrow.