A nation on the edge:

Race relations might be at its lowest in Trinidad and Tobago these days and we’re not even in an election mode.

Listening to commentators and callers on the plethora of radio stations in the country, there’s constant talk about “we” and “them” – by members of the two dominant ethnic groups in describing each other.

With no monitoring of the talk shows by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad (TATT), commentators, talk-show hosts aided and abetted by some of their gleeful listeners have become more vile and crude in their language in describing the other ethnic group.

I’m all for freedom of the media but that freedom – as journalists are always reminded is not absolute and there are certain fine lines that we should not and must not cross.

Race relations in the country have been tottering on the edge for several years although the two major races, Indo and Afro Trinidadians have largely lived peacefully side by side.

The only time when there’s some real undercurrent is during a general elections period when the two groups traditionally throw their support behind the two major political parties that reflect their ethnicity.

The lone exception was in 1986 when the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR), an amalgamation of opposition and various fringe parties was formed and successfully beat the People’s National Movement (PNM) which previously ruled the country for 30 unbroken years.

No one can really point to the moment or the factors when race relations began to deteriorate at the alarming stage that is facing the country in the present day.

Afro-Trinidadians may point to the 1995 victory of the Basdeo Panday led government when some of the ruling party’s zealous supporters began chanting “It’s we time now”  – when the country got its first Indo prime minister – and what added more suspicion is the firing of some Afros who held prominent chairmanship positions at key state corporations.

Indo-Trinidadians, however, may be quick to note that their Afro brothers and sisters were the ones kicking up the racial dust in their own face because for the first time, some equality was taking place in the country and discrimination, once hidden away, was being brought into the open.

The ethnic division was also reflected in the outcome of the December 2001 general elections when the results emerged as 18-18  – an historic tie in the electoral process of the country and which resulted in a major parliamentary crisis.

So in present day Trinidad and Tobago, race tensions are very much alive but neither of the two political parties are making any appeals to the population at large to depart from the treacherous road they were travelling.

I’ve maintained that the topic of race relations in Trinidad and Tobago will hardly be a major issue for either of the two parties since I rather much suspect that they deliberately want to maintain a certain level of tension between the two races for their own selfish purpose of getting into and remaining in power.

More fuel has now been added to the raging racial fire now consuming many of our people when a high court suggested that government consider renaming the highest award, currently called the Trinity Cross to one that was acceptable across the board by all religions.

Shortly after, the Privy Council, ruled that government was being bias and discriminatory in not awarding a licence to the largest Hindu organisation to have their radio and television stations while granting a prominent supporter of the ruling party a licence to operate a radio station although his application was made some time after the Hindu group had already applied.

And now the continuing controversy involving Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma has really set the inferno of racial discontent blazing.

Clearly, the racial battle lines have been drawn; some may say irreversibly so between the two dominant races in the country. I hope not.

And while the politicians, the judges, attorneys at law and other top-ranking people in the country tear at each other’s throat, no one is looking at the sinister development taking place at the level of  the masses.

We have not yet reached the stage of blood shedding and we have to avoid that at all cost but the multi-million dollar question is how to harmonise the two races.

In 1993 prime minister Patrick Manning commissioned a report from the UWI’s Centre for Ethnic Studies on race relations in the country.

The report, not surprisingly found widespread complaints and evidence of racial discrimination in both the public and private sectors in the country.

Yet, recommendations made in the report to reduce the suspicion and tension between the two dominant races in the country have not been implemented.

Two years ago, businessman and media magnate Ken Gordon and other prominent individuals in the private sphere launched the Principles of Fairness which was signed by most major organizations in the country.

One of the main points in the Principles of Fairness is the recognition that the problem of racial discrimination does exist in both the private and public sectors and calls for “certain fundamental principles of fairness” to arrest this degeneration of race relations in the society.

Sadly, the Principles of Fairness seem to have fade into oblivion while the people behind it have gone silent despite the high level of ethnic tension in the country.

Instead of moving together as one people, one nation, Trinidad and Tobago have actually receded in the area of managing race relations.

Yes, all the ethnic groups go to the doubles vendors and roti shop and jump up in fetes but that can’t be mistaken as racial harmony as some people like to make it out to be.

For the tension between the races to reduce, the first thing is to acknowledge that it exists.