I have called my lawyer and put him on standby prior to publishing this blog in the event that the police comes knocking on my door for daring to call for the removal of a public official who has brought his office into disrepute. This is an open letter to the President of my beloved Republic Trinidad and Tobago, to revoke as soon as is convenient to him the appointment of Nizam Mohammed as Chairman of the Police Service Commission. Mr. Mohammed first brought this office into disrepute by blatantly disregarding the lawful instruction of an officer of law and then subsequently using his position as Chairman of the PSC to undermine and subvert the course of justice, not to mention demoralise the two officers in question along with the entire police force. In addition, Mr. Mohammed's actions have fueled the perception in this country that the law is made only for the lower classes while the higher classes and those in high office can do whatever they wish without compunction, such a perception can only further fuel the already pervasive air of unlawfulness currently blowing through this land and the Prime Minister and Minister of National Security will do well to take heed.
Mr. Mohammed further brought his office into disrepute by going to Parliament last week and making a declaration that he is going to seek to adjust the racial imbalance of the police service because East Indians are 50% of the population. Firstly I have no idea where Mr. Mohammed got his statistics from but East Indians are roughtly 40% of the T&T population. Secondly I find it quite ominous that Mr. Mohammed would not suggest that more people of mixed descent be promoted into the police service because apart from the roughly 38% African population we have a mixed population of roughly 20%. What about the minority groups? Does Mr. Mohammed not want to see more caucasians, chinese and syrians in the police service? His focus on the East Indian population alone has revealed all too well what his inner thoughts are and the citizens of this country would do well to disregard and rebuke sentiments as espoused by the likes of Mr. Mohammed. There is no place in a cosmopolitan country such as Trinidad and Tobago for comments and sentiments such as Mr. Mohammed's. Secondly Mr. Mohammed's vow to interfere with the racial composition of the police service should be of grave concern to all citizens because that is not in the remit of his office as the purpose of the PSC is to review the performance of the COP, his deputies and the police service as a whole. Once Mr. Mohammed commences on his crusade of 'racial fixing' he will be stepping outside his bounds and then he would be doing the very thing he seems to want to allude others are doing i.e. giving preferential treatment to people of East Indian descent while sidelining persons of African descent and all other ethnic groups.
In addition Mr. Mohammed's aim should actually be the reverse, i.e. ensuring that there are sufficient Africans, Syrians, Chinese etc in the police service. In countries like England and the USA there are provisions for minority groups and a certain percentage of government positions are allocated for minority groups to ensure that the dominant ethnic group does not over power the minority groups. Mr. Mohammed seems to be advocating the reverse of that, because there are more East Indians than any other ethnic group in Trinidad & Tobago that they ought to dominate all aspects of our country. This indeed is a very dangerous advocation being made by Mr. Mohammed and all citizens ought to pay very close attention to the response of the Prime Minister who is of East Indian descent and who's core supporters are of East Indian descent. Out of curiousity would Mr. Mohammed advocate there being less East Indian doctors and more African doctors? How about lawyers? I wonder if Mr. Mohammed would be happy if someone charges that there should be more Africans and Mixed Peoples in the police service and government jobs than East Indians as the 38% Africans and 20% mixed gives you 58%!!
Mr. Mohammed has charged that he feels threatened by newspaper articles calling for his removal and has suggested that the Police Commissioner as well as the Minister of National security 'act' on it. Whatever Mr. Mohammed means by that I do hope he understands that he is a public official and any citizen can exercise their democratic rights in whatever way and call for his removal if we feel he is abusing his power or bringing his office in disrepute. Whether we choose to print 8 pages a day in the Express, write a letter to the Leader of the Opposition, Prime Minister, President or any of our Members of Parliament that is our constitutional right! I do not recall Mr. Mohammed or any current public official calling on the Police Comissioner a year ago to deal with all those people who were publishing weekly full page ads about Mr. Manning and Calder Hart. The mere fact that Mr. Mohammed does not seem to understand the constitutional rights of citizens when dealing with public officials is further proof that he is a public official gone astray and he needs to be removed forthwith! No public official is above the law or beyond criticism and the minute we start to go down that slippery slope, the end result is sure to be of dire consequences. ©
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