Tau­reef Mo­hammed

To­mor­row at 10 am, in a cer­e­mo­ny in­volv­ing the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion and the South African High Com­mis­sion, King George V Park will be re­named the Nel­son Man­dela Park, says Port-of-Spain may­or Ray­mond Tim Kee.In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Tim Kee said the de­ci­sion was made by the cor­po­ra­tion's 16-mem­ber coun­cil, and not by him­self.

Asked if there were any con­sul­ta­tions about the re­nam­ing of the park, he said, "I don't know what con­sul­ta­tion we have to do. I spoke to many peo­ple around the area about the ini­tia­tive and they were all gung-ho about it."Asked if he thought a town meet­ing should have been called to dis­cuss the plan, he said, "I didn't have to do that, be­cause coun­cil made the de­ci­sion. The cor­po­ra­tion is the own­er of the prop­er­ty and the coun­cil­lors made the de­ci­sion. Now if res­i­dents had said 'no,' what will I do now?"

Tim Kee said re­nam­ing the park af­ter Nel­son Man­dela was a be­fit­ting way to ho­n­our the world icon."Man­dela has changed the whole world. He was re­ferred to as the man of the cen­tu­ry and sure­ly the best way to ho­n­our him is not by nam­ing an an­i­mal in the zoo or an air­craft af­ter him."King George V had his place, but change has to take place," he said.But Tim Kee said the com­mem­o­ra­tive stone at the south-west cor­ner of the park bear­ing the name King George V Park would re­main.

Tim Kee added he con­sid­ered it dis­re­spect­ful to ques­tion the move to name the park af­ter the South African free­dom fight­er."I am sure the South African am­bas­sador, on hear­ing that Man­dela's name is be­ing ques­tioned, would think that it's dis­re­spect­ful," he said.He said a sign with the name of Nel­son Man­dela, who died on De­cem­ber 5, will be un­veiled at the cer­e­mo­ny to­mor­row.

Mixed re­ac­tions

When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the King George V Park yes­ter­day, there were mixed feel­ings among reg­u­lar users about the name change.A found­ing mem­ber of the Har­vard Club, on the west­ern side of the park, said he pre­ferred the name to re­main as it was."They should leave it just as it is. Every­body knows it as it is and to go and change it now will lead to con­fu­sion.

"Find an­oth­er way to ho­n­our him. You're tak­ing some­one who we have al­ready ho­n­oured, King George V, to re­move him and ho­n­our some­one else. That doesn't make sense."He added: "They should re­al­ly con­sult the peo­ple around here be­fore they make any de­ci­sions on these things."An­oth­er per­son wel­comed the move. "Man­dela is an icon. He is a man known through­out the world and King George V is out­dat­ed right now, so I am for Man­dela. I have no prob­lem with the change." he said.

Lee Sing: Con­sul­ta­tion need­ed

Wide­spread con­sul­ta­tion is need­ed be­fore re­nam­ing King George V Park, says for­mer Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing."A mat­ter like this need­ed con­sul­ta­tion and wider air­ing so that the peo­ple who are af­fect­ed by it, like the res­i­dents around the park, would have been ap­prised as to why the change is be­ing done. I'm hop­ing that that hap­pened."This is a fun­da­men­tal change and un­der my tenure we would have tak­en some­thing like this to a town meet­ing," he added.

On the suit­abil­i­ty of nam­ing the park af­ter Nel­son Man­dela, he said, "I won­der if we are not rid­ing the Man­dela thing. What about Tou­s­saint L'Ou­ver­ture? He is more rel­e­vant to be giv­en pride and place. He was a Caribbean man who came long be­fore Man­dela and he did all the things Man­dela did."Lee-Sing said au­thor­i­ties need­ed to be cau­tious not to be hasty when re­nam­ing places.

"Many peo­ple ap­proached me when I was may­or to re­name places and in­sti­tu­tions, but there are many things to take in­to con­sid­er­a­tion, like the his­to­ry and the sig­nif­i­cance of the per­son. Is it that every time a gov­ern­ment changes we change the name of some­thing?"