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Speaker:The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: May 27, 2000
Occasion: Remarks at the Mala Ki Baraat the Hindi Nidhi Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, Trinidad.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Ladies and Gentlemen; My Dear Friends; My Brothers and Sisters:
I am overwhelmed by the warmth of your reception. Oma and I came to you with love, this evening. You have returned our love a thousand fold. We thank you. Thank you very much.
We thank the Hindi Nidhi Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago for this most enjoyable evening.
We commend the President of the foundation, Chanka Seeteram, and his team, for bringing together, tonight, so many members of the national family of Trinidad and Tobago. Thank you, Chanka, for what is, in a way, a belated birthday party for me, among so many cherished friends.
My friends:
The Foundation has prepared a sumptuous banquet for us, and we have joyfully feasted.
I cannot help wondering, now, how many of you, in these final hours of the week, still have appetite left for such food for thought as I might now bring to the table.
Tonight, three nights away from Indian Arrival Day, we can, with justification, consider this evening�s proceedings a Thanksgiving Dinner, of sorts.
My dear Friends: It is fitting, at this time, for us to give thanks to India for giving so many of us our proud heritage. It is also fitting, at this time, for all of us to give thanks to Trinidad and Tobago for giving us all our home, our own, our blessed, native land.
At times like these, we celebrate the things that unite Trinidad and Tobago with India. One of those things is language.
English is our official language, as it is India. English is the language we all understand, here in Trinidad and Tobago. English is also understood, read and written by an estimated one third of the population of India. Some 20 per cent of the Indian people speak English.
This is about the same proportion of the Indian population that does not understand or speak Hindi. I do not know what proportion of our population can speak English, or write it.
"Creole" is, of course, the language we all speak in Trinidad and Tobago. Spanish, in our schools, is sanctioned by the State.
Hindi, now, is also sanctioned by the State as a language to be taught in our schools. How many languages do we have? We speak four languages in this country?
That�s not all. We also speak Jamaican dialect. We must not forget that we also speak - at least our radio personalities do - a Bronx Brooklyn lingua franca that is not without its devotees.
Perhaps because India has close to one thousand times the number of people that Trinidad and Tobago has, India�s people speak, as we do, in a variety of tongues.
India recognises eighteen official state languages, which are used in schools and official transactions. India recognises one hundred and twelve "Mother Tongues". Over one hundred and eighty languages have been tabulated in India.
As many as 544 dialects had been identified in India, at last count, a couple of years ago. All of this, however, has been marvellously simplified.
Life has been made much easier for India�s citizens through the simple device of declaring two Co-official National Languages.
That�s two, co-official languages, Hindi and English. Not surprisingly, not everyone in India can speak or understand the two co-official National Languages. For that matter, my dear friends, not everyone can speak or write, or understand, the official language in Trinidad and Tobago, either.
Fortunately, the new education system comes to terms with our widespread inability to speak or write Standard English. In the new system, there is to be particular emphasis on written and spoken English, and on reasoning; and on communications skills in our children.
There will, as well, be new emphasis on religious values in our schools, even as we embrace technology as a key teaching tool and as a vital subject area.
As mandated by our geography, and by economic and trade realities, there should also be a stronger connection with Spanish in the schools population and in the general population. Diversity is always challenging, isn�t it?
My Dear Friends:
The potency of the Hindi Foundation in mobilising so many movers and the shakers from diverse areas of the society is most impressive. We may not all be here at the Centre of Excellence this evening as devotees of Hindi, the language of songs.
I have no doubt, however, that in the most profound sense, the language spoken by your presence here tonight is the language of love.
I speak of the love we should have for one another, as members of the national family of Trinidad and Tobago.
I speak of the love that is expressed by caring and sharing and wanting to help. Your being here, every one of you, is an act of generosity. You did not come here because you were thirsty.
You did not come because you were hungry. You are here because of love.
That is the love which expresses itself in the desire to give, to do good for others. Our Nation needs people like you, people who believe in doing good for others. There is no end to the good that you can do for others, my brothers and sisters.
There is no limit to the number of people in need of somebody to do some good for them.
There are many who are hungry, too many. There are many who are thirsty, too many.
There are many who are homeless, too many. A great teacher once said:
Whatever you neglected to do unto the least of these, you neglected to do to me. It is good for us to remember that statement, that lament.
There is a great deal of meaning, a great deal of relevance in that statement. Let us look at it in the context of equality in the society. Does anyone here doubt the need for a mechanism to ensure equal opportunity for all, irrespective of creed, or race, or gender, or disability, or political affiliation?
Does anyone here doubt that there is a crying need for every citizen to feel a sense belonging, a sense that he, or she, has a stake in this land. Let us look at it in the context of education in the society.
Does anyone here doubt that, there is a crying need for the democratisation of education in this country? Can we afford not to do more for the poor? Can we afford not to give strength to the weak?
On the other hand, can we really afford to give more to those who already have some, while lacking the means, and ignoring the need, to give a little who now have none?
Can those of us who are healthy afford to turn our backs on those who are unwell.
These may not be seen by all as proper questions, proper concerns, for an evening of pleasure such as we are enjoying tonight.
However, when the sun rises tomorrow, my brothers and sisters, all of these concerns will all be there to confront every one of us.
The Rising Sun may change some things. The Rising Sun cannot change everything.
But we�ve got to try.
We�ve got to mobilise sufficient resources to protect defenceless women from detestable men who would maim and murder them.
We�ve got to mobilise sufficient resources to protect innocent children from ruthless predators who would violate even their own infant offspring.
We�ve got to mobilise sufficient resources to protect and to produce jobs for all who want to work.
We�ve got to try to give every child an equitable opportunity for a quality secondary education, on the basis that every child who is taught will learn.
We must, above all, unite to protect our society from people who would rent it apart by setting brother against brother, sister against sister, and neighbour against neighbour.
They are among the most destructive forces that can be let loose on any society.
These are the lessons in love that we must all learn to live.
My brothers and sisters; This is the quality of the love that we must live. We do not have a choice.
I am encouraged by your presence here. You are here because you care. I am grateful for that, and I thank you for it.
I know that in your individual ways, you will continue to contribute where it will be of value, as you have contributed to this evening�s success.
Together, we can make life better for everyone in Trinidad and Tobago. When Trinis unite, we win.
It is tragic that some in our society are unrelentingly opposed to national unity, trying to divide in order to rule. How much better it would be if we would all live the language of love.
Whether we speak the language of songs, Hindi, which uses simple and gentle words for poetry, or for exact and rational reasoning;
Whether we speak English or Creole, or Patois, or any permutation of the above; Trinidad and Tobago would be a far better place in which to live, if we lived the language of brotherly love.
Indeed if we treated one another right, whatever the language we learn to speak, our nation just might be the best place in the world to live.
In this context, it is good to remember that whatever language we speak is a language that we have learnt.
Let me urge you, let me urge every one of you, to learn six words in every language you adopt:
Together we aspire.
Together we achieve.
We already speak those six words.
Now, let us practise what we preach.
May God bless every one of you. Thank you.