Learn from Nizam’s mistake

Community Development Minister Nizam Baksh says public officers must learn from the mistake made by Nizam Mohammed following the racial controversy which brewed over the last two weeks. Speaking with reporters after distributing wheelchairs at his Naparima constituency office in Princes Town yesterday, Baksh said he had been listening to public reactions, both before and after President George Maxwell Richards revoked Mohammed’s appointment as chairman of the Police Service Commission on Monday.

Baksh said he did not see any difficulty with anyone raising the issue of ethnic imbalance in the Police Service. “What matters is what you say, how you treat with it and the way you put it across...That is what would make a difference in what others are clamouring about,” he said. Despite this, Baksh said Richards had taken a decision and there was nothing anyone could do about it. “Generally, we cannot question the President or take him to court,” he said.

“People could have discussions on the wayside about it, but it will have no effect right now on what is said and done.” He added, however, that public officials must learn from Mohammed’s error. “It is a lesson for all of us that when we are in public scrutiny, we have to be careful of what we say and how we do things...We have to be very transparent and fair,” Baksh said. He said there was public perception that the People’s Partnership Government was under public scrutiny more than ever before. Baksh said he did not think Richards had to give any explanation for his actions to revoke Mohammed’s appointment.

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Allisha Ali, 22, ailing from cerebral palsy, was one of six people who received wheelchairs. The others were 83-year-old Baramdeo Maraj, who suffers from arthritis, Wendy Stephens, Vishnu Ramjattan, Joseph James and Rookiah Sookwah.