Education Minister Anthony Garcia borrowed a famous line from late Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams to respond UNC activist Devant Maharaj’s decision to publicise Garcia’s personal cell number online.
“Let the jackass bray,” Garcia said at a musical concert at his St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain ministry.
Maharaj yesterday shared Garcia’s number on social media, urging parents of the “Belmont Primary School” to call the Education Minister on his cellphone and complain about conditions. This was the third minister’s number Maharaj had posted on social media in three days.
Yesterday, Garcia said while Maharaj’s intentions may have been designed to provoke confusion, the joke was on the activist.
“I’m accustomed to my telephone number being available to my burgesses, when I served for five years on the Arima Borough Council and on one occasion when I served as the deputy mayor,” Garcia said.
“It is nothing new to me. It is something I’m accustomed too and as long as my constituents would need my assistance through telephone messages, I will respond to it.”
Garcia said he received 13 missed calls from the public during a meeting and an additional four asking about the Belmont Primary School. However, he said to his knowledge there is no school by that name and he dutifully informed those who rang his phone on this.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had to discontinue use of his phone over the weekend after receiving threatening messages to his line after Maharaj posted his number. National Security Minister Stuart Young’s number was also posted online by Maharaj on Sunday.
While Maharaj’s claims his actions are designed to encourage greater transparency and connect the Government to the people, political analyst Dr Winford James believes the motive is to hasten the downfall of the Government.
He noted that while the act was “unethical” and “immoral,” it could also be seen to “be good politics,” adding that the act “doesn’t break the law.”
Maharaj’s act would perhaps qualify as Doxing, which is the Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private information about an individual or organisation for various reasons, including extortion, coercion, inflicting harm, harassment, online shaming and vigilante justice. Some countries have legislated against such acts, but T&T laws currently do not.
James said Maharaj’s actions might be risqué and designed only to hurt the Government.
“If you are merely releasing a number because according to you, you want people to call the Prime Minister, then you don’t have that right.”
Meanwhile, executive director of the EquiGov Institute, Rishi Maharaj, says sharing personal information when there is no public interest is only a moral and ethical dilemma at the moment.
“Because we don’t have proper legislation in the country dealing with privacy protection and data protection, these things will happen. Because of the way technology is evolving and people are using doxing and phishing and other means to get people’s information our laws have not caught up with technology.”
Maharaj explained that the Data Protection Act passed in 2011, which deals with the way people’s personal information is stored, used, collected and shared, was never fully implemented.
He added that there must be a balance between personal numbers and constituents wanting accessibility to representatives.
“You must balance that accessibility and transparency with unreasonable intrusion in one’s privacy. So calling and asking someone to talk about issues at 2 am, that in my view could be unreasonable intrusion into privacy and there could be some consequences to that.”
He said the legal issues would come down to how the former minister would’ve gained access to the numbers he shared.