Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, says the government’s promise to remove the images of Christopher Columbus’ most famous ships from the country’s Coat of Arms needs to be carefully thought out.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley, announced the move on Sunday at a Special Convention of his governing People’s National Movement, PNM, discussing the report of the Constitutional Review Committee.
Dr. Rowley says the plan is to remove the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria from the national emblem and replace them with the steel pan.
But Mrs. Persad-Bissessar believes if the process is not handled properly, it can ignite racial tensions in the Twin Island Republic.
She acknowledges that Columbus was wrongfully celebrated for some time.
But Mrs. Persad-Bissessar, in a statement on Monday, says sanitising history, truth, and free speech in the modern era of wokeness, virtue signalling, and cancel culture will only promote ignorance and foster the repetition of evil acts in the future that can be preventable.
She says the entire political conversation, starting with the proposed changes to the Coat of Arms, is a tinderbox that can be ignited when emotions run high.
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