There is no racial strife in Trinidad and Tobago. I have never heard of any race riots here. As a matter fact, many within and without this country have showered praise on our citizens for being able to live and grow together in such harmony.

Now we have Mr Manning proposing that race relations be taught in the schools of this country—for what? There is absolutely no need for this type of instruction in our schools, and well does Mr Manning know it.

He and his PNM party are simply peeved that they haven’t managed to convince the majority of East Indians to vote for them, so they are trying to convince us (the silly ones, that is) that there are serious racial problems in this country.

There can be no change to this so-called ethnic voting in Trinidad and Tobago for the foreseeable future—at least not while Indians and those of African descent occupy the major racial categories.

The reasons are really quite simple. The cultural and social values of these two groups can sometimes be very different. East Indians with their culture based directly on their religions, in this case Hinduism and Islam, and the African population, mainly Christian, with a culture not always connected to their religion, can create wide differences in their attitudes, and how they vote at election time.

The PNM has been accused of instilling a “dependency syndrome” into a certain section of the population (the “gimme gimme” mentality) since they first came to power and appear to be keeping it up at full pace.

It is very much like being invited to a day at the river for some fishing with Basdeo Panday and Patrick Manning as our hosts. We can picture them standing side by side. Mr Manning will have a large basket of fish next to him, inviting everyone to help themselves, while Mr Panday will be handing out fishing rods.

Mr Panday will also have a basket next to him—it contains pamphlets with instructions on “how to fish” for those who don’t know how.

It is quite obvious that the greater part of the East Indian population of Trinidad and Tobago subscribe to the “teach me how to fish” approach, and while this prevails, ethnic voting will continue— unless the other side changes its attitude.

Jeremy Boyd