Patrick Manning, Sat Maharaj and Racism

So Sat Maharaj is his usual belligerent self in accusing Patrick Manning of being racist toward ‘Indian’ people for closing Caroni (1975) Ltd while he (Manning) was Prime Minister. Maharaj is no stranger to racist comments, nor to divisiveness nor to… idiotic comments. He certainly hasn't mellowed or grown wiser in his dotage… sorry, old age.

For the most part, I tend to disagree with Maharaj. He is not a pleasant person by any means, and his view are often at odds with proper, logical thinking.

Keith Rowley is correct when he said that there was no evidence that Manning was personally liable for the decisions of the Feroza Ramjohn case, coupled with a case brought by Ganga Persad Kissoon, in both cases Manning used his power of veto to deny them promotions. The Privy Council was clear:

With regard to the dismissal of the Prime Minister's appeals in both cases, the Board would add only this. There is no question here of the Prime Minister having acted otherwise than in good faith in each case. The Board's decision is simply that in the very particular circumstances of these two cases, on the evidence put before the reviewing courts, the decision-making processes can be seen to have been unfair to the respective officers concerned.

However, there was no denying that he was in charge of a government whose members and supporters were found to be discriminatory to ‘Indian’ people. The evidence shows this. Whether he himself was racist therefore becomes moot.