President George Maxwell Richards reacted to political pressure to revoke Mr Nizam Mohammed's appointment as chairman of the Police Service Commission on Monday 4 April. In a multi-racial society like T&T we must always guard against racial discrimination in its various forms. Mr Mohammed has been sacrificed on an altar of truth! Those who wish to retain their privileged position in the police service have today won. But our children and grand children will continue the fight for racial equality at all levels of the public service on T&T. Last week we explored the academic history of the issue of racial imbalance of the police service. Deposed chairman of the Police Service Commission Nizam Mohammed merely echoed what was said since 1992 by the University of the West Indies in its research publication, Ethnicity and Employment Practices in Trinidad and Tobago.
Subsequent to that, it is instructive to note the contributions of Captain Gary Griffith, temporary senator, national security Opposition adviser during the 2002to 2007 period. Extracts from Griffith's contribution in the Senate is hereby produced. "It has become even more apparent that the Junior National Security Minister is totally clueless to what actually takes place in theProtective Services. To dismiss the statements by the Opposition Leader that there are concerns of ethnic imbalance within the Protective Service and Defence Force and say it is the Opposition Leader's imagination, can undoubtedly be considered as the most blatant case that one could ever witness of burying your head in the sand.
"Whereas this concern does not mean that individuals in the Service are racial, there is, however more than enough cause for concern that the present system allows for prejudice in many forms, inclusive of ethnic imbalance due to improper recruiting procedures and criteria for promotion, with no avenue for redress.
"There is in fact a major perception of a blatant ethnic imbalance throughout the Services, with it being rumoured that there is less than 20 per cent of our servicemen being of East Indian origin. "One may say that it is just that most of those who apply or are successful are Afro Trinidadians, but I wish to ask these few questions. Has a pie chart ever been compiled to show the ethnic composition of all of the protective services, with a separate chart showing the ethnic composition of military commissioned officers? "Is there a data base to verify that more Afro Trinidadians actually apply into the protective services than those of Indian origin? Is there proper transparency to ascertain whether the East Indians who apply are actually given a fair chance to be enlisted? Is there an imbalance of recruiting officers who are non East Indian at the recruiting offices, which may lead to possible bias and / or intimidation, hence the reason for a possible low turn out and even failure of applicants who are non Afro Trinidadian?
"Are the recruiting stations positioned evenly throughout the nation, or are there conveniently more in Port-of-Spain and its environs rather than in the Central region?Is enough being done to start showing those who are non Afro Trinidadian, that there is indeed a place for them in the protective services and that they would not be victimised, which would also ensure a greater number of applicants who are non Afro Trinidadian? "It must be demanded that the above-mentioned questions are answered, which will either confirm the theory that there is in fact some form of discrimination within all arms of the protective services and Defence Force, or that these concerns were unwarranted, so the citizens do not need to feel alarmed that they have a Police Service and Army that is selected based on race rather than talent.
"Ethnic imbalance of our police and army should very well be a priority, and we should operate in a similar manner to what transpired in the United Kingdom, whereby in the Commission for Racial Equality it was verified by data gathering, that the ethnic composition was highly imbalanced, with very few non-whites being enlisted into the Police Service.
"The Police Service should reflect the ethnic composition of the society that they are assigned to protect and serve.There have also been numerous reports of East Indians being rejected by our Defence Force and then reapplying to other foreign armed forces and excelling by leaps and bounds, which means a loss of talent to our nation because of poor selection processes. "By denying that a problem exists, would not make it go away. But then again, what do you expect from a man who refers to the whole East Indian community as a recalcitrant (disobedient) minority, and when given the authority and responsibility of national security for a nation, says it is not his fault that crime cannot be controlled, as he sees it as our fault because we are bringing up our children badly." Why was not the then temporary senator Captain Gary Griffith hounded in the same manner like Nizam Mohammed? Is that only when an Indian calls race he is accused of being a racist?
Satnarayan Maharaj is the
secretary general of the
Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha