00:00Former MP and former minister Dr. Bohindra Nath-Tawari notes,
00:05this country has achieved middle-high-level income status
00:08and performs strongly in international measures of human talent.
00:13He is also deeply concerned about the resurgence of race-based political talk,
00:19arguing that ethnic loyalties continue to shape the country's political landscape
00:24and constrain national progress.
00:26When you see the race talk now in the country, it's quite disturbing, really.
00:32And it looks like people don't understand that close to 35% of our population is mixed, right?
00:40I mean, all this race talk in the society is ridiculous, really.
00:46He says the country needs a society where opportunity is genuinely open to all.
00:52The only way you can deal with the individual identity issue and solve it
01:00is to give people the confidence that where we are headed together
01:06is towards a just and fair society
01:13in which there are going to be political opportunities, economic opportunities,
01:20and social security for everyone.
01:23Looking ahead, Dr. Tawari notes the government's move toward AI and data infrastructure,
01:29but says the country's limited resources present a serious challenge to hosting major data centers.
01:36The world is going AI, there's no way you can stop it.
01:39You better be in rather than out.
01:42But I don't think you can have a data center here that depends on our energy
01:48and our electrical power and our water.
01:52And as the global economy accelerates into the AI era,
01:56he says TNT cannot afford to remain uncompetitive.
02:00He is calling for expert leadership to drive the transition.
02:05But somebody has to champion that and make it, and it can't be the minister.
02:09It has to be some technologically proficient person,
02:15but who can also work with people and get them to do the things
02:20and sell them the vision and let them understand why what they are doing is so important.
02:25because we are a very uncompetitive country
02:29when you compare us to other countries, our age in terms of independence.
02:35Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
