Agreeing with Bartholemew

The response of Central Bank to the complaint from the Global Organisation for People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) about the non-selection of Indo-Trinidadian students for its vacation internship programme was predictable and shallow.

It explained that no Indo-Trinidadian student was among the 14 students hired because the programme catered for the children of the employees of the bank. (Perhaps this was the bank’s way of implicitly admitting that the bank’s employees are predominantly non-Indians). Faced with the problem posed by the fact that there were students who did not fall into this category, the bank said other students were selected from ‘unsolicited applications’. How these students came to know that the bank had an internship programme and that it was willing to entertain unsolicited applications remains a mystery.

With Selwyn Cudjoe as a director one would have thought that the bank would have been a bit more racially sensitive towards the Indo-Trini community. Let’s face it: if Sat maharaj was a director, Dookeran was Governor of the bank and 14 Indian students were hired in a central bank full of only Indian employees, the Afro-Trinidadian community would have been understandably upset. The Central bank defended the racial bias in its staffing with the trite statement that race is not a factor in its recruitment and promotion policy which is based on merit. Apparently the bank has not been able to find any meritorious candidates in the half of our population that is of East Indian descent.

Gopio is as right to complain about racial imbalance in the staff at central bank as Prof Bartholomew is to complain about the preponderance of Indo-Trinidadian students accepted to study medicine. My problem is the former is roundly condemned as racist whilst the latter is viewed as having a legitimate complaint. Cudjoe has expressed the view that “the larger communal interest of a multiracial society cannot be served if 80% of the students UWI and 75% of the students of Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Technology (TTIT) are Indians." (Guardian, August 26 th 2003). I agree with this. Social development cannot be one-sided but balanced and equitable or else racial resentment is bound to occur.

My problem is whenever I try to make the same point regarding the relative absence of Indians in the protective services (army, police, prison and fire services), the hierarchy of the public service (permanent secretaries, chief technical officers and directors) and the foreign service (ambassadorial appointments and staffing at overseas missions), the very people that are so vocal in their support for Prof Bartholomew remain silent or rush to paint it with a racial brush. I am asked to produce impossible statistics to prove my point and have regard to the ‘historical and cultural factors’ but no one is singing that tune now.

Is it not true that Indian students have traditionally gravitated towards sciences whilst African students gravitate towards the social sciences and arts? What do the statistics show? Is it not true that Indian students are less involved in traditional extra-curricular activities when compared to non-Indian students? What does Prof Bartholomew define as ‘extra-curricular activities’ that should merit bonus points when evaluating applications from students who wish to study medicine? Is it confined to playing pan and football or does it include playing the dholak in the village temple and being active in the mosque?

Career PNM activists of long standing Ferdie Ferreira and Prof Selwyn Ryan came out in full support of Bartholomew’s call for more African medical students. The insinuation is that the criteria are too favourable to Indian students. Who comprises the admissions committee at the Faculty of Medicine? It is chaired by the Dean of the Faculty Dr. Phyllis Pitt-Miller (daughter of the highly respected late Lord David Pitt of Hampstead) and the majority of the admissions committee is non-Indian. It is therefore mischievous to make it out as if the Indo community deliberately created this situation with the intention of excluding others.

Ethnic monitoring policies are now a standard feature in most developed cosmopolitan countries. Universities are very careful to monitor their intake to ensure racial diversity without compromising the integrity and transparency of its admissions policy. This is also needed in our society but not just in the medical faculty for the benefit of non-Indians. It should apply to the protective services and the public service as well in favour of Indo-Trinis. There are as many Indians who qualify for employment with the central bank as there are African students whose excellent extra-curricular and academic record justifies their place in medical school. We cannot run a two-legged race on one foot.

By Anand Ramlogan 2007-07-21