Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath says po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age — not mer­it — con­tin­ues to in­flu­ence the eth­nic com­po­si­tion of State boards in T&T, shift­ing de­pend­ing on which par­ty is in pow­er.

The is­sue ex­plod­ed in­to pub­lic dis­course af­ter Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) chair­man Mar­vin Gon­za­les ig­nit­ed con­tro­ver­sy with re­marks ques­tion­ing the eth­nic bal­ance of re­cent board ap­point­ments, provoca­tive­ly ask­ing whether the coun­try had be­come “Bangladesh or Del­hi.”

Gon­za­les claimed that for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley would not have al­lowed such ap­point­ments. How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia con­duct­ed a fact-check by com­par­ing the out­go­ing boards un­der the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) to the new­ly ap­point­ed boards un­der the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), in­clud­ing those of the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC), Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UDe­COTT), Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT), Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC).

The analy­sis re­vealed lit­tle ev­i­dence to sup­port Gon­za­les’ as­ser­tion of eth­nic im­bal­ance be­ing unique to the new ad­min­is­tra­tion. In­stead, it showed that the UNC has large­ly repli­cat­ed the PNM’s ap­proach — ap­point­ing boards that re­flect its po­lit­i­cal sup­port base.

Board com­par­isons

At NGC, the out­go­ing PNM-ap­point­ed board had eight mem­bers: four of African de­scent, two of In­di­an de­scent, one of Chi­nese de­scent, and one of mixed her­itage — demon­strat­ing no­table di­ver­si­ty. In con­trast, the cur­rent board com­pris­es sev­en mem­bers, six of whom are of In­di­an de­scent.

At UDe­COTT, the PNM’s board had six mem­bers — five of African de­scent and one of In­di­an de­scent. The new UNC-ap­point­ed board has flipped that ra­tio: five of In­di­an de­scent and one of African de­scent.

At WASA, the pre­vi­ous board had 11 mem­bers: eight of African de­scent and three of In­di­an de­scent. The cur­rent board has eight mem­bers — six of In­di­an de­scent and two of African de­scent.

At TSTT, the out­go­ing board con­sist­ed en­tire­ly of mem­bers of African de­scent. The new five-mem­ber board has four mem­bers of In­di­an de­scent and one of African de­scent.

At T&TEC, the PNM-ap­point­ed board had sev­en mem­bers: five of African de­scent, one Chi­nese, and one In­di­an. The new board com­pris­es nine mem­bers — sev­en of In­di­an de­scent and two of African de­scent

When con­tact­ed for a re­sponse, Gon­za­les de­clined to elab­o­rate, stat­ing: “I’m en­cour­ag­ing every­one to look at my state­ment in its en­tire­ty, and not to add to any­thing else that I have said on the mat­ter.”

Pressed fur­ther, he ac­cused crit­ics of se­lec­tive­ly quot­ing him.

“The UNC op­po­nents went to one part so they could put their own spin — ref­er­ence to Bangladesh and Del­hi — when I al­so men­tioned Mozam­bique and Ghana. Why omit those ref­er­ences? It sug­gests they are des­per­ate to avoid the re­al is­sue I raised on this very sen­si­tive mat­ter.”

Dr Ra­goonath said the trend re­flects the racial di­vi­sions en­trenched in the coun­try’s po­lit­i­cal cul­ture.

“Our pol­i­tics is racial­ly di­vid­ed. When a par­ty wins an elec­tion, it tends to re­ward its sup­port base by ap­point­ing mem­bers who re­flect that base,” he said.

He stressed, how­ev­er, that the pub­lic dis­course should be fo­cused not on eth­nic­i­ty, but on com­pe­tence.

“The big ques­tion is: are these in­di­vid­u­als qual­i­fied for their roles? Are they ca­pa­ble of do­ing the tasks they’ve been as­signed?”

Ra­goonath al­so point­ed out that Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo’s re­cent sen­a­to­r­i­al ap­point­ments — nine in to­tal, with on­ly one In­do-Trinida­di­an — could be used by the UNC to jus­ti­fy its own board com­po­si­tions.

“The ar­gu­ment was made that the Pres­i­dent ap­point­ed ca­pa­ble in­di­vid­u­als. So if that prece­dent is set — one In­di­an and eight oth­ers — the UNC may ar­gue it’s sim­ply fol­low­ing suit.”

Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin con­demned Gon­za­les’ com­ments as “bla­tant­ly racist,” say­ing they un­der­mined the coun­try’s foun­da­tion of di­ver­si­ty and in­clu­sion.

“Such rhetoric has no place in na­tion­al dis­course. Lead­ers must pro­mote uni­ty, not di­vi­sion,” Ben­jamin said, warn­ing that these re­marks dam­age ef­forts to build an in­clu­sive so­ci­ety.

The Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) al­so re­buked Gon­za­les. Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader Im­ran Ali said: “Mr. Gon­za­les’ state­ments un­der­mine ef­forts to build trust and in­clu­siv­i­ty. Trinidad and To­ba­go is a di­verse na­tion, and our po­lit­i­cal dis­course must re­flect that — with re­spect, not di­vi­sion. He seems in­tent on be­com­ing the new Fitzger­ald Hinds of the PNM: loud, di­vi­sive, and out of step with the coun­try’s needs.”