- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 04/Sep 13:49

Dr Eric Williams’ daughter defends his legacy

ERICA Williams-Connell, daughter of Trinidad and Tobago’s first prime minister Dr Eric Williams, has defended her father’s legacy against claims by UNC PRO Dr Kirk Meighoo that Williams did not hold that title. In response to questions from Newsday on the issue, Williams-Connell said she had only two comments to make with respect to Meighoo’s claims. The first was an ancient Egyptian proverb. “To speak the name of the dead is to make them live.” The second was a TT adage. “Nobody pelts stones at a tree that doh bear fruit.” She did not elaborate on either of those comments. At an event in Port of Spain on August 20, 2022, Williams Connell said her father fought for the best deal for TT’s independence. Williams Connell said starting from 1950, as their colonies became independent, the British customarily offered a “golden handshake,” a sum that was to be used to buy British goods. No other colony in a similar position fought for a better deal, she insisted. “The golden handshake is the complete representation of the fight for the best deal. It lasted a year. “Eric Williams was the only post-colonial leader to refuse it. Every other post-colonial leader accepted the terms and conditions and said, ‘Thank you very much.’ And he refused it on the basis of his historical study about slavery and what slavery contributed to the British and American industries.” Williams Connell made those comments in response to a statement by then opposition leader (now Prime Minister) Kamla Persad-Bissessar that TT never fought for its independence from Britain. “That was the fight! No, we didn’t go and shoot guns on a hill to fight for independence, but we did fight, and the fight lasted a year.” Meighoo has said his statements were his personal views and not reflective of any UNC position about Williams. His statements have, however, generated widespread commentary from different people, including front-line politicians. On September 1, Persad-Bissessar described the matter as a non-issue. In a WhatsApp comment on September 2, in response to a statement made by former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley, Persad-Bissessar said, “This is just a group of old men fighting about a dead man. There are many more pressing issues to deal with.” She added, “It’s a democracy, everyone is entitled to an opinion, it’s is what it is.” In a Facebook post earlier in the day, Rowley was not surprised Persad-Bissessar saw the matter as a non-issue. “It must be a non-issue for her because she facilitates the revising of history and facts. It might be a non-issue for her but it is everything for the rest of us.”. On the same day Opposition Leader and PNM political leader Pennelope Beckles said,”Among the most blatant of these falsehoods proclaimed by the UNC, and dismissed as a non-issue by the Prime Minister herself, was the allegation that Grantley Adams was TT’s first prime minister.” Beckles said the claim was completely untrue. Beckles added Meighoo published a maliciously inaccurate post that attempted to distort historical fact, attacked national symbols, and belittled the hard-won legacy of our independence. Historian Professor Cladius Fergus and head of the Eric Williams Memorial Committee Reginald Vidale have also commented on Meighoo’s statements. The post Dr Eric Williams’ daughter defends his legacy appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.