The Ed­i­tor,

The Cab­i­net reshuf­fle and re­align­ment of port­fo­lios, has once again brought a Cab­i­net that is very eth­ni­cal­ly/racial­ly di­verse and al­so gives cre­dence to the PM's be­lief that all re­li­gious de­nom­i­na­tions are equal, epit­o­mis­ing the penul­ti­mate line of our Na­tion­al An­them. A cur­so­ry glance of the Cab­i­net from 1955-1986, would show that while there were at least two East In­di­ans in the Cab­i­net there were no Hin­dus.

There has been no Cab­i­net to date that has been so plur­al and eth­ni­cal­ly di­verse and in terms of re­li­gious com­po­si­tion of mem­bers been so het­eroge­nous in the Ex­ec­u­tive Arm of the State. There cur­rent mem­ber­ship of the Cab­i­net now sees 13 non-East In­di­ans and 19 East-In­di­ans. The non-East In­di­ans in the Cab­i­net are Min­is­ters Win­ston Pe­ters, Dr. Ru­pert Grif­fith, Mar­lene Coudray, Lar­ry Howai, Jack Warn­er, Clifton De Coteau, Del­mon Bak­er, Anil Roberts, Stephen Cadiz, Lin­coln Dou­glas, Em­manuel George, Er­rol McLeod and Jus­tice Min­is­ter Her­bert Vol­ney.

For the first time in the na­tion's his­to­ry, we are see­ing a Cab­i­net with 37.5 per cent Hin­dus (12 Hin­dus), 12.5 per cent Mus­lims (4 mem­bers), 50 per cent Chris­tians (16 mem­bers). It is im­por­tant that we clear up cer­tain mis­nomers with the de­no­ta­tive mean­ing of race (a group of peo­ple dis­tin­guished by phys­i­cal traits, blood type etc.) and re­li­gious de­nom­i­na­tion/af­fil­i­a­tion and how we con­fuse them and use them in­ter­change­ably.

For ex­am­ple, the cur­rent Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment is In­di­an but his re­li­gious de­nom­i­na­tion is Pres­by­ter­ian which falls un­der the sect of Chris­tian­i­ty and so he is not Hin­du. Many con­fuse re­li­gion with race-every In­di­an is not a Hin­du.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter has al­ways spo­ken of how for­tu­nate she has been with the unique ex­pe­ri­ence of be­ing a Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist and a Hin­du. I dis­tinct­ly re­mem­ber and many oth­er ed­u­ca­tors in the field could at­test of how she pro­fessed and was proud of be­ing a Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist when she was Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion un­der for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day dur­ing the UNC's first term in of­fice (1995-2000).

To fur­ther elu­ci­date the point, there is a very se­nior cab­i­net min­is­ter who is In­di­an and Hin­du but mar­ried to an In­di­an who is a Chris­t­ian who be­longs to the Pen­te­costal faith. I may be hav­ing a se­nior mo­ment now, but I think that there is a sage say­ing or an adage that al­ludes to this: "Facts are stub­born things and re­gard­less of how hard we try to ig­nore, dis­tort, for­get or chal­lenge them, they still re­main facts."

Hansen.stew­art@ya­hoo.com

Mr. H. Stew­art

Cane Farm Av­enue

Tacarigua

Trinci­ty.