E/CN.4/2004/18/Add.1 page 4 for putting this multicultural potential to use for democratic, social and economic ends, and political moves in this direction seem to have begun: the Prime Minister informed the Special Rapporteur of his recent initiative calling for the establishment of several committees on interracial relations among other topics, and an ethnic studies centre. The Special Rapporteur considers at this stage that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago seems to have set in motion a process that is likely to lead to institutional reform, thereby reducing the importance of the ethnic factor in society. The fact that the Prime Minister himself chairs the Ethnic Relations Committee is an acknowledgement that political commitment at the highest level is crucial to a sincere and lasting reconciliation between the various communities. That said, and pending further information, the degree of political consensus in this process is still in question.