Multi-ethnic societies produce enduring challenges for equity, justice and political management. Today’s electronically-driven democracy helps keep the divisions and “cultural accidents” alive, as now evident in our own “every creed and race” society.
During the last two weeks, the country witnessed noisy political clashes between government and opposition over the Constitution, tassa and steelpan, crime, health, etc, and the strategies used towards the next elections. The ethnic division was restlessly evident.
After last Sunday's PNM convention, at last Tuesday at La Horquetta/Talparo constituency meeting, PNM political leader Dr Keith Rowley loudly came out as an angry “political badjohn,” severely blasting UNC Opposition Leader Ms Kamla Persad-Bissessar for ‘bringing race” into the coat-of-arms change.
She replied as sharply as he. In all this both Dr Rowley and Ms Persad-Bissessar must take care about their roles in this multi-ethnic society.
Dr Rowley lashed some UWI lecturers for “misleading the population,” saying they should be “fired for not doing the research.” He criticised other commentators who felt he should not have presented the PNM’s own proposals for constitution reform while the proposals from the Cabinet-appointed Barry Sinanan Advisory Committee on Constitution Reform were still in the air. He attacked Kamla’s 2010-15 PP government for having CoP Stephen Williams just “acting” for several years. He now plans to reform the appointment process.
He then gave lecturer Dr Jerome Teelucksingh a lesson about the difference between tassa and steelpan. Dr Teelucksingh suggested that a referendum be called for the coat-of-arms change and added: “Yes, we use the steelpan but couldn’t we have used the tassa also?”
Rowley instructively replied: “The steelpan is the only instrument that is indigenous to us.”
Constitution Advisory Committee member Dr Terrence Farrell explained that the committee “did not specifically recommend any change in the coat of arms.”
And so speculation grew as to why, really, Rowley proposed this change?
Then, warming up the cultural controversy, the Tassa Association of TT gave us this cultural tip: “No part of the steel drum is from TT as it is a fully imported metal container while the tassa is fully made with no imported material.”
What! The association added: ”The skin is from our local goat, sheep or deer, sticks are made from TT wild sugar cane, the bowl is made from TT clay,” making tassa “more indigenous” than the steelpan. Culture Minister Randall Mitchell and Pan Trinbago president Beverley Ramsey-Moore disagreed. Is it artistic skill or materials that count?
So once more, this “every-creed-and race” country appears to sit uneasily on a cultural seesaw. It now seems the country needs a three-day convention on multiculturalism and nationhood. We have to move from just tolerance and sympathy to fuller understanding of each culture and empathy for each grievances.
The PNM Constitution Committee rejected a fixed election date, proportional representa
