Arts and Multiculturalism Minister Dr Lincoln Douglas says T&T is a violent nation. He said so in response to receiving several threatening phone calls at his home and office. He added his colleagues have been contacted by people seeking information on him, leaving him feeling threatened. In an interview yesterday at Radisson Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, Douglas said since the public airing of protesters burning an effigy of him on Sunday, it was easier for people to target him.
He also condemned a statement by the Movement for Social Justice’s party organiser Akins Vidale that destroying effigies was part of T&T’s culture. He said: “I feel threatened. As a matter of fact, I am threatened. People have called me, they have called my house and they have called my friends. There are people calling my colleagues and asking them for information about me all the time. “Probably he doesn’t know this or isn’t aware of this but I hope he will apologise to this nation and understand the severity.
“This is August and the election has not even gotten going. Imagine what will happen next year. They will be burning down the town. “It now becomes easier for people walking the streets to feel that it is easy to use some kind of violence against me so I am calling on the MSJ to apologise for that kind of statement.
“This is a violent nation. Everyday we have two or three people being killed or murdered and we can’t have more images to support those things. “For a political party to come out and make that statement, it is a crying shame in this country,” Douglas added. Describing the protest as violent, he said people could draw on those images when they were ready to riot and fight. He said such protests could escalate to the violence being experienced in Rwanda.
“If you announced over the radio or on the TV, people squashing cockroaches, or calling other groups rats, then you would have created a mindset that makes it easy. “This is not Good Friday, this is living people that we are talking about, active people who are walking the streets,” he added.