In your paper of January 12, on page 7 Mr. JAINANAN MAHADEO commenting on the appointment of Mr. Manning as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, wrote:

"Popular Indian bashers (haters?) such as David Hinds and Eusi Kwayana have not seen fit to issue their by now predictable calls for a national government in the Trinidad scenario"

"This is because a Black government is in power there. Their position on this clearly exposes their ulterior motive in installing an Afro-Government in Guyana, to the exclusion of all other races, especially Indians, who are portrayed as the enemy in this part of the world and who must be periodically brutalised to keep them in place."

The offence is not even relieved by an Editor's footnote.

On Tuesday January 8, 2002 on page 15 your paper published enough of a GAP/WPA statement to give any honest reader an idea of where we stood on the issue. Your write-up also contrasted the GAP-WPA position with that of others who had taken the side of one or the other of the two Leaders in Trinidad and Tobago.

GAP-WPA's clear statement on the issue was drafted by a group of which I am a member. Both Dr. Hinds and I are well known to be members of GAP-WPA.

The GAP-WPA statement was drafted and dated December 30, 2001.
According to our records it was dispatched to Stabroek News, VCT and Catholic Standard and CANA on January 2, 2002 and to the Guyana Chronicle on January 4,2002. It was published in the Stabroek News on January 5,2001 under the headline,

"GAP-WPA proposes unity government, rotating leadership for Trinidad."

Moreover, I am told by many that on January 6, on African Perspective on Channel 9, Dr. David Hinds argued for a National Unity Government in Trinidad and Tobago.

Even before that I read in the Stabroek News a letter from Dr. Hinds advising that since Mr.Manning rejected Panday's call for a National government and insisted on the existence of an opposition, then President Robinson should make Manning the Leader of the Opposition.
Eusi Kwayana