THE EDITOR: Irresponsible, unpatriotic, childish and puerile can be adjectives easily used to describe the recent utterances of former San Fernando West MP Faris Al-Rawi.

And, if you happen to be a policeman or working in the DPP's office, you may even consider adding "seditious," to your list.

Make no mistake, as a former attorney general, Mr Al-Rawi ought to have known better, or, perhaps, he knows better but doesn't care.

For those who do not know what I am talking about, I refer to a story in the Newsday's May 8 edition, on Page 8, headlined: Al-Rawi: Expect terror, torture, persecution.

In this story, Al-Rawi is quoted: "Expect six months of terror, torture, lies, frivolity and persecution." He goes on, "...it requires every one of us in this red army to stand in defence of the nation."

Here's what is clear, having drunk from the cup of power for ten long years, Mr Al-Rawi is obviously a very sore loser. He conveniently ignores the fact that it was not UNC supporters alone who delivered this crushing defeat to the PNM, it was the PNM's own supporters who aided and abetted in the torpedoing of the PNM government on April 28.

His wild claim, made not even a full week into the tenure of the new government, is dangerous simply because of the words he chose to utter. "Red army" obviously refers to the PNM supporters. "Stand in defence of the nation." Is this a call to take up arms against the democratically elected government which happens to have no balisiers in its headquarters?

If this can be clearly construed as a call to take up arms and move violently against the government, then this is a matter that moves from the realm of voicing a personal opinion, which everyone has a right to do, to one that may merit some kind of investigation by the authorities. Mr Al-Rawi's statements, given the society we live in and given the nature of our very adversarial politics, ought to be viewed with concern by the authorities. And by the authorities, I do not mean the government.

The subliminal planting in the minds of people, by a person who a few days ago was a member of a government and a member of Parliament, that there is a need for the "red army" to "stand in defence of the nation" is something that ought to looked at with a degree of concern especially given our violent history of the black power movement of the 1970s and the attempted coup of 1990.

At the very least, the PNM ought to censure Al-Rawi and disassociate itself from his militant views, if it is genuinely sincere about its desire to change and reset by becoming a more people-centred, more empathetic and caring party, as espoused by its new Opposition Leader, Pennelope Beckles. Over to you madam.

LEE MERRICK

San Fernando

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