As he ex­tend­ed best wish­es to the Afro-Trinida­di­an com­mu­ni­ty on the oc­ca­sion of Eman­ci­pa­tion Day yes­ter­day, Oropouche East can­di­date Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is proud of its track record in deal­ing with racism. Dur­ing a mo­tor­cade in Debe yes­ter­day, Mooni­lal not­ed the con­tri­bu­tions of African de­scen­dants to T&T and the Caribbean.“From the con­ti­nent of Africa, we have re­ceived a great amount of wis­dom and sci­ence. We al­so salute the con­ti­nent of Africa for their chil­dren. Notwith­stand­ing 186 years, we al­so note that dis­crim­i­na­tion and in­jus­tice con­tin­ue, not on­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go but across the world.

“The UNC stands proud as a par­ty that put laws and in­sti­tu­tions in place to deal with in­jus­tices, dis­crim­i­na­tion and mar­gin­al­i­sa­tion against our broth­ers of African ori­gin and oth­ers. We are proud of our track records in deal­ing with racism in  T&T,” Mooni­lal said.
As he con­tin­ued his re-elec­tion cam­paign, Mooni­lal said he not­ed a baf­fling state­ment by Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Camille Robin­son-Reg­is. He said he was not sur­prised that Robin­son-Reg­is spoke about some­one be­ing drunk and dri­ving as these things are al­ways on the minds of Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) politi­cians.
“The peo­ple to­day are about jobs, roads, wa­ter and in­fra­struc­ture. The peo­ple in this area care about flood­ing. They want to elim­i­nate flood­ing which has de­stroyed and wrecked their com­mu­ni­ty for three to five years in Oropouche East. They are not in­to mau­vais langue and pi­cong and that type of nas­ti­ness that Robin­son-Reg­is, Hinds and oth­ers are in­fa­mous for,” he said as he con­demned Robin­son-Reg­is’ state­ment, de­scrib­ing it as “nasty.”

On Fri­day, for­mer Tabaquite MP Dr Su­ru­jrat­tan Ram­bachan en­dorsed Mooni­lal as the next leader of the UNC and prime min­is­ter-in-wait­ing.
How­ev­er, Mooni­lal said the UNC is one par­ty with one leader “and on Au­gust 10, one prime min­is­ter, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, will re­turn.”