Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago has accused a newspaper of fueling racial bias when there was none, he claims and is using Guyana’s Indian origin Prime Minister Moses Verasammy Nagamootoo’s decision to not open Guyanese airspace as it could lead to 5,000 Guyanese diaspora to returning home which may overwhelm Guyana’s healthcare system.
In a scathing rebuttal, the Prime Minister wrote:
What does the Trinidad Express (the newspaper that alleged bias) think now that an East Indian Prime Minister in a Caricom nation has taken a position that his Government is not opening its border to let even nationals in, many of whom are East Indians (Indian origin people).
This decision in Guyana is coming ONE MONTH after a Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister took the same decision for the identical reasons (to not allow citizens abroad to return home).
However, in Trinidad, the Express Editor and elements of staff along with politicians and lawyers and selected columnists invoke race, facilitate disgruntled people’s racist interpretations and write Headlines and Editorials to defend their dastardly irresponsible conduct.
The singular objective of theirs is to shape and fashion a political narrative that they believe would be negative to the Government.
As Prime Minister I do this job only in keeping with my oath of office, lonely and thankless as it is, I do it because somebody has to do it. There will be another time when somebody else will have to do it and I will be the most understanding of their plight.
I see the best wishes meted out to me and my family by many grateful citizens but I also see the nastiness of some who have a role to play but choose to play it discordantly.
It might make “good” headlines and sell a media product but do you think that your people have any idea of the spectrum of pain and stress involved in making decisions on a silent, invisible killer which threatens to change ALL lives forever?
Or are they just the parochial tools of the ambitious thieves and vagabonds who have nothing to contribute other than their own narrow self-interest?
