Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says the First Peoples of T&T will be given a one-off national holiday in recognition of their contribution to T&T.
Rowley said that as he addressed a Divali function hosted by the People’s National Movement at Constantine Park, Macoya on Thursday.
Earlier this month, Ricardo Hernandez Bharath, representing the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community (SRFPC) called for a one-off holiday to recognise the history of indigenous peoples in T&T.
The organisation has been lobbying for an October 14, holiday for several years.
At an event to mark First Peoples Heritage Week, Hernandez said that the group did not want an annual holiday but a one-off public holiday simply to sensitise the public about the existence and struggles of indigenous people in this country.
At the Divali event, Rowley said: “We must not ignore those who claim the status of First Peoples in this country.” He described them “as owners of this land before we came, they ask and say to us, very humbly—as we acknowledge those who came as Hindus, Muslims (and) Christians, as we acknowledge them every year with a holiday—to put aside one day, not every year, but just one day as the day of recognition of our First Peoples.”
Rowley then asked whether that request was too much and too much respect to show.
“We have heard you and we too will acknowledge you because we are all one people in T&T.”
Rowley said regardless of our race, creed, citizens of T&T can feel comfortable and satisfied that every year in our nation we can celebrate Divali.
He said while there was ethnic, racial and religious strife in many nations of the world it is not the same in T&T.
“Let us recognise and be comforted that so far, so good, and by and large, we are living together as one.”
During the event Government ministers, Faris Al-Rawi, Stuart Young and sang a Bollywood song much to the amusement of the audience.
An insult to Divali -Ramdial
Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial yesterday described the PMN’s Divali celebration an insult to the Hindu community.
In a release, Ramdial says the PNM’s function was a Bollywood show with ministers making a spectacle of themselves.
She deems it hypocritical of the PNM to be part and parcel of such a lavish, expensive function when temples, village councils, cultural organisations all over T&T would have applied for funding to host real Divali celebrations and told by the Government of reduced spending and unavailability of funds due to low energy prices.
Ramdial asks whether the money from PNM financiers should have been given to groups and organisations to host Divali celebrations within communities.