In an interview with the Sunday Guardian, newly elected President of the Law Association, Dana Seetahal expressed serious concerns about the capacity of Commissioner of Police, Dwayne Gibbs to mobilise and inspire his officers. Seetahal offered her opinions in an interview that reflected her personal opinions on the matter, but the comments the lawyer, a Senior Counsel, offered were uncompromising in their unfavorable evaluations of the Canadian policeman. "I am saying that he himself as a person is not a good leader," Seetahal said in response to a question from interviewer Clevon Raphael.
"That (being non-Trinidadian) is an obstacle in his way, but he could have overcome that and I don't think he has successfully overcome the fact that he is a foreigner and not only that, he is Caucasian..." Citing the African majority of officers in the force and drawing some disturbing allusions to the civil unrests of 1970 and 1990, she went on to suggest that the fact that Gibbs "is a foreigner of Caucasian extraction is being seen by many people as a very retrograde step" done in defiance of the nation's efforts to "free ourselves from the shackles of colonialism." In the face of the quite clearly stated concerns about the Commissioner's capacity to lead and his race, it seems necessary to remind the Law Association president that Dwayne Gibbs was not, as she suggests, "foisted" on Trinidad and Tobago.
The new Commissioner of Police was appointed after an exhaustive exercise that opened the doors of employment to the world as well as to suitably qualified officers in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
This was a process that had to be done twice, at considerable cost to the taxpayers, after the PNM Government rejected the appointees offered by an earlier selection committee in 2008. Dwayne Gibbs emerged as a prime candidate in 2010 and his selection was preceded by exhaustive evaluations by a review committee that was regarded as competent and capable of presenting an acceptable slate of nominees for the post of Police Commissioner. It's a hallmark of Trinidad and Tobago's maturity as a nation that it has emerged from its "civil unrests" with a clear eye and studied mind about governance, and that clarity led to a selection process that made it possible for the best-qualified contender for the job, despite his race or the country of his birth, to be considered for the position.
The People's Partnership Government supported this process robustly by voting in favour of Gibbs as the nominee of choice for the job soon after they took power. The rigour and vociferousness of Dana Seetahal's tongue lashing of the Commissioner of Police seem out of place given the record of performance of his predecessors in the job and the epic expectations of an office that cannot act rashly in pursuit of public commendation. Due diligence and care have been a hallmark of Commissioner Gibbs' tenure in the role yet and for a man who came to the job with only an outsider's knowledge of the cultural and political landscape of this country, it is to his credit that he has managed to not only avoid conflict, but has managed to make some small but positive inroads among the public. On the issue of Ms Seetahal targetting the race of Mr Gibbs as somehow contributing to his unfitness to lead officers of African and Indian descent, it must be stated, in no uncertain terms, that such thinking is racist, antiquated and regrettable.
Such thinking, we are sure, does not reflect the thinking of the majority of officers who Commissioner Gibbs leads or of the larger community of Trinidad and Tobago. Such thinking has no place in a country in which leaders in the public and private sectors come in all colours and in a world in which the race of Barack Obama was no bar to him becoming the President of the United States and the most powerful man in the world. To paraphrase Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, Mr Gibbs must not be judged by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character...and his ability to transform the local police service.