Christo­pher Boy­ack and Ali­cia Llanos

For­mer broad­cast jour­nal­ist Den­nis Mc Comie has joined the call for a com­mis­sion of en­quiry in­to the events lead­ing to the at­tempt­ed coup in 1990.

He spoke at yes­ter­day's an­nu­al wreath lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the En­ter­nal Flame Mon­u­ment in front of the Red House in Port-of-Spain.

Dur­ing the pe­ri­od of the at­tempt­ed coup, Mc Comie served as the lone voice on the air­waves on ra­dio 610 AM, keep­ing cit­i­zens in­formed. Al­most two decades lat­er, on the 19th an­niver­sary of the at­tempt­ed coup, Mc Comie's voice again in­formed the na­tion of the im­por­tance of not on­ly re­mem­ber­ing the events that took place, but ex­am­in­ing them in search of the truth. He ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment with the Gov­ern­ment's po­si­tion that there was no need for a com­mis­sion of en­quiry.

He said pleas for an en­quiry had been "stu­dious­ly ig­nored." Mc Comie said com­mis­sion of en­quiry was need­ed to "bring clo­sure to this dark pe­ri­od in our his­to­ry." Stress­ing that it was a so­cial and hu­man­i­tar­i­an is­sue of crit­i­cal im­por­tance, Mc Comie sug­gest­ed that the date Ju­ly 27, be made a na­tion­al day of re­mem­brance.

He urged those who at­tend­ed yes­ter­day's cer­e­mo­ny to let the now tra­di­tion­al wreath-lay­ing have true val­ue, not just look­ing back, but look­ing for­ward to pros­per­i­ty in our evo­lu­tion and de­vel­op­ment as a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic na­tion state. Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer of the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) Lennox Smith, who spoke on be­half of the par­ty's po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Car­son Charles echoed Mc Comie's call for an en­quiry.