28 thoughts on “Sat’s public servants comment upsets Dumas”

1. Harmony according to Sat

   Newsday Editorial
   June 02, 2014 – newsday.co.tt

   MAHA Sabha leader, Sat Maharaj, has quite unnecessarily kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest over his highly-divisive remarks that diminished the harmony of the Indian Arrival Day celebrations at Debe and nationwide last Friday.

   He said, “Over the past 50 years, attempts have been made to expunge the contributions we have made to the development of TT”. Who the “we” are is obvious from the nature of the event and the inferences made in Mr Maharaj’s presentation. But we must ask further for his proof of such an allegation: who, when, where, what, and why.

   We cannot fathom the logic of such a remark, in view of the fact that over the years that citizens of East Indians have risen to the highest offices in the land. We recall Noor Hassanali as President of the Republic; Basdeo Panday as Prime Minister; Persad-Bissessar as Prime Minister; Sat Sharma as Chief Justice; Police Service Commission chairman Prof Ramesh Deosaran; and Independent Senators such as Prof Harold Ramkissoon, Rev Daniel Teelucksingh, the late Dana Seetahal SC, Dr Rolph Balgobin and Subhas Ramkhelawan. Persons of East Indian descent like all others who have made us one people, one nation, have seized the educational and other developmental opportunities available to all citizens, and done exceptionally well in the professions and in making their contributions to their society without let or hindrance, in such areas as politics, economics, law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacology, religion, etc. Our citizens of East Indian ancestry have all prospered highly in business, ranging from big-business to small and micro-enterprises such as the tyre shop or the humble doubles-stand. Who can ever try to diminish the huge contribution of East Indians to the field of education, at primary, secondary and tertiary levels? Unlike the other groups who historically quickly left the land, East Indians today dominate the agricultural sector, providing food for the nation, and prospering therefrom.

   East Indians have proudly achieved in such quantity and quality that it is now quite unbelievable that any attempt could ever be contemplated to “expunge” these achievements, in contrast to the claims of Maharaj. If Maharaj has any evidence of any attempted expungement, we’d like to see it.

   As to the Public Service, this field has always been open to citizens of all types of background, although historically, not all groups would have equally felt to innately gravitate towards it, but might instead have sought opportunities in the private sphere.

   Regarding Maharaj’s claims of a pro-north Trinidad bias in development, the plain fact is that the country must have a capital-city somewhere, it was long ago chosen as Port-of-Spain, succeeding St Joseph, because of the good waterfront access. It cannot be unexpected that most of the “machinery” of governance must be located in the capital near to each other. That is the simple factual history of how the development of Trinidad occurred, and is not due to any geographical bias.

   Maharaj also attacked the integrity of public servants past and present by alleging they are largely “PNM plants” who undermined the People’s Partnership (PP) whom he said should therefore be elected for a second term next year.

   A “great son of our soil”, a “fearless fighter” and “warrior”, may be attributes of Maharaj in serving his own constituents, but in the wider national context, they don’t blend with his highly divisive sentiments on Friday: sentiments which also should not be rewarded with Prime Ministerial endorsement, especially when he is being handed $750,000 of ALL taxpayers’ money.

   The Prime Minister told the audience, “Sat has shown us that you must speak when you can, and where you can. This is a free country. You must not remain docile and afraid. You are a citizen of this land just like every other citizen.” Maharaj has never been debarred from speaking whenever and wherever he could, neither has he ever been pressured into being docile and afraid. But one cannot have his or her cake and eat it, by one minute espousing a colour-blind national unity, and next minute endorsing Maharaj’s offensive spiel. That is what happened at the Indian Arrival Day event on Friday with a very disappointing intervention by the Prime Minister of ALL of Trinidad and Tobago. Please.

   http://www.newsday.co.tt/editorial/0,195648.html

2. Sat is right, shortly after he said that the auditor report came out in the Express saying $32 billion unaccounted for by various ministries. The permanent secretaries and public servants who are strongly pro PNM does everything to embarrass the government. The whole lot should be fired for laziness and incompetence. That is the best way forward. And who is Dumas to pontificate on anything. He was part of this problem.

   1. Mamoo, I am not one for throwing jabs but your intervention here is typical Mamoo and as usual shed little or no light on anything that would erase perceptions. You always help in emblazoning it… Thanks Mamoo!

      1. The Permanent Secretaries have been known to sit on files for months and delay delivery to the population just to make the PP look bad. Now the discovery that they are not good at keeping records. Strange that the auditor was denied files….don’t u think Kian.

3. What we see is the map of the next general election being shaped by the UNC as a ‘racial war’. The mantra used by Indians for many, many, many years was to call the authorities (headed by Africans) racist and since middle class Africans still do not cherish the idea of being called racist, they would naturally relent from any such suspicion and allow Indians to have their way. On speaking out, Indians are generally comfortable with saying how they feel about any perceived grievance and would channel their thoughts publicly whilst Africans in authority portend to stifle theirs when Indians make general misleading statements about them. So, Sat’s ‘revelations’, if one might call it that, is actually nothing new nor momentous. Sat has always been one to publicly cast a shadow on anything the black man does or does not do, right and wrong was never a concept to engulf his thinking, he is 100% hindu and 100% Indian, being Trinidadian for him is just a matter of geography, he happens to be an Indian born in Trinidad, the West Indies (at least the word Indies, lays comfort to India). The acidulation of Sat Maharaj’s brand outside of the Hindu community has always been tenuous and suspicious at best, however it is my belief that it was Manning (for fear of being branded racist) who tempered Sat’s acidity by offering him positions on Boards and heeding his tantrum for the radio stations and national merit awards. This made Sats’s validity more acceptable to Indians and in the process made him the voice of the Indians. I do not expect Kamla to come close to answering Reginald Dumas call for clarification, acceptance or validation of Sat’s statements. She will do no such thing. She is Sat’s mentor first, and the prime minister second. So asking her, as mentor to Sat to rebuke his dastardly conduct is like asking a christian to rebuke Christ.

   1. Has nothing to do with race but everything to do with work ethic and loyalties. The PP concluded over 75 wage negotiations with unions representing public servants. Last year alone they gave them $1.7 billion in wage settlement. The PNM treated the unions with contempt, yet the PNM biggest supporters are trade unions. The PP has given more to PNM supporters than the PNM ever did. That is a fact, but these people are filled with ingratitude for all the kindness expressed to them. Like an abused wife they will return to their abuser because in some twisted way they believe the abuse is an expression of love.

      1. I find these thoughts very infantile and lacking of a larger comprehension wage settlements? ingratitude for settling union grievances? kindness? abused wife? ?????
         Rubbish.

         1. Why would u find these thoughts infantile? Those are the facts. Just look at past and present history…with an open mind instead of your racist slant.

   2. Yes, I am an Indian and Sat Maharaj does not represent me.
      The PM should distance herself from Sat and his inflammatory comments which seek to divide.

4. To every rule there is an exception. In this instance I know many people of African and East Indian origin who are patient, tolerant and basically good people. In this instance there seem to be a broad brush used to paint across the board here on this site. If every blogger can endorse their general statements with some examples then it will help clarify some issues. e.g., In the early 70s there were some Trinidadians who got scholarships from the Gov’t of T&T to study at institutions such as LSE in London. I know of everyone of those scholarship ‘obtainers’ who toured the Continent during summer and really had a good time during the rest of the year. As expected, half of them did not fulfill their obligation in obtaining their academic qualifications. At the same time there was this East Indian family who were ‘dirt poor’ with 6 sons and 3 daughters each of them got their degrees locally and abroad. One of them was an island schol winner the rest of them worked and studied. Another one of them applied to the T&T gov’t for a scholarship but was denied but to put salt to the wound his application forms were sent back to him with the wrong photo of the applicant in place. Today, 2 of them are now deceased and none of them I know had any racial tendencies, in fact there is interacial marriage with some of the siblings. Why is it we tend to gripe about mantras, middle class Africans, etc? Maybe Sat and Dumas have some examples of evidence that they can disclose to remove us from over-generalizations. Point Lisas development maybe South of the Caroni river but although Julien and Saith were Trintoplan partners it does not mean that they were not obstacles in place for some qualified people. By the way there was an English Zoologist who was in charge of the quality Control Dept. at ISCOTT during that time.

   1. No doubt that there are good people of all races, class and cultures. When we address issues there is an unspoken gratitude and admiration for those who have given sterling service to good governance and stewardship for a better Trinidad and Tobago. We wish that there would be more rather than less of them but as you read the news you must realize that there is a lot of hate and fear in the population, without the right kind of leadership things can only get worse not better.

5. Former heads of Public Service should go away quietly and quit attaching so much importance to themselves. Sat should go away quietly and tend to his Hindu organization. His public political pontification is uncalled for.
   The PM is under no obligation to answer Dumas or Sat. They are both excessively vocal and irrelevant. Who the hell does Dumas think he is to call on the PM to clarify Sat’s useless and divisive comments? At times like this we need the wisdom of Eric Williams : answer to no one!

6. I too came from a very poor background (financially poor) but I never experienced poverty of spirit nor poverty of my imagination but. But sentiments I express are for the good of my country. I cannot be side tracked by personalities. I get my cues from institutions and how they are managed and used not for one set of people but for all. It would be foolish of me to say that everything should be balanced in terms of numbers, I think things should be balanced in terms of competence and commitment. Life was never equal and will never be equal. Talents are given to all people. In the U.S. for the past six years the Spelling Bee Champions have been Indian children and no one should envy that, they are deserving and accomplished because they were committed to their craft. God have blessed people in different ways and we should all be appreciative for what we’ve got. In my younger years I served in the Security Forces which was a very good foundation for me and it took me through my IT profession where I flourished. But then again, I do not write to speak about myself. I care about my country and when we start saying bad things about people just because we do not like them, then objectivity is lost. There is the constitution and when it is not followed then the administrators bad. There are institutions of government with specific laws and regulations with which to run them, and when those regulations are not followed or broken, then they are bad a dministrators. There are parliamentary rules and regulations to follow and when those procedures are not followed properly then there are bad parliamentarians. There are general laws for all of us to follow and when we go afoul of them we are to be punished accordingly. Those are the things that I address and when I do it is not necessary for me to identify with the perpetrators race, creed or color. It is when we deviate from the norm problems occur. This current government is the one authorized by the people to govern, it is therefore cogent for me to focus my attention on them because they also have the responsibility and resources to correct wrongs and make things better. If they fail in that respect, I also have the right to criticize them and I will do so, with fear or favor. We all have that same right. My reasoning is that I want to see my country follow the right path towards nationalism and that path should be made clear. The reason why so many have failed is because motives are cloaked in their intentions for seeking office in the first place. When their actions are measured and it is found that who they serve is a very few rich people at the expense of the poor, that is evil and we should all be very angry about it. When they poor are deprived of services and the rich are lavished with it, then that too raises my ire. When government does something right we should also praise them and let them know that.

7. Whether it is personalities or institutions, what is meant by the Guyanirazation of T&T? This, to me is painting with a broad brush.

8. In terms of events, outcomes, behavior, structural deficits and eventual mode of conduct, what is happening to Trinidad and Tobago is no different from what is taking place in Guyana. It is the preferred model for governance. It never chose to be like Barbados, which is the best run island in the Caribbean. Guyana is the stated preference. Don’t worry! we are getting there fast.

   1. That type of thinking is silly and infantile at best. Barbados is a tourist driven economy where the Bajans are servants to the visitor. Earlier this year the Bajan government laid off over 1300 civil servants. Are you suggesting Trinidad lay off civil servants. That may not be a bad idea because many of them are ignorant, lazy and have poor people skills (something the PP sought to address.

      As for the Guyanese model you lost me there, I don’t know what that mean. Guyanese are only to anxious to come and live work in TnT. I don’t see that as a model but rather a repressed nation finally finding a way to rebuild their economy. By the way TnT is doing fine except for the island imports living in PNM voter bank areas killing off each other and giving TnT a bad name. Send dem back and TnT will be a paradise once more.

      1. Mamoo, Sandi B was right! you are a lost cause and you are right I have lost you. Maybe, just maybe I may have to ask my friend Neal to explain what I’m saying to you. Neal, if your are listening, could you explain to Mamoo? I need help.

   2. Barbados does not have a racial divide like TT. It is a mostly Afro dominated society, like the rest of of the English speaking Caribbean. You realize is TT, Guyana, where this racial issues are taking place. I can’t say for Suriname because I do not know the racial dynamics of that country.

      1. So do you think we are in kindergarten. We all know of the racial composition of these Caribbean islands.

9. I was not surprised at Sat’s comments. It is clear to me that he is getting senile. The others cannot prove that what Sat said is true. In fact it seems to me that their comments are racial. Why don’t you deal with the issues of false papers? If you want to talk, let deal with facts. The issues of Rashmi et al are factual not hearsay. Mamoo if you are honest and not racial then you should respond. I challenge you!

   1. I am sick and tired of hearing about Reshmi. One of the lost facts in her appointment is that her application was vetted by the civil servants responsible and she was recommended for the job by the Ministry official. This was clearly an example of PNM agents within the civil service setting up the PM.
      With regard to “false papers”, civil servants are responsible for vetting the veracity and accuracy of applications. I believe the number of “false papers” appointments was less than five. Exaggerating qualifications and padding resumes are worldwide problems, particularly in North America. It is the responsibility of Human Resources personnel to verify the contents of applications and to shortlist applicants. What is the role of the civil servants in T&T in all of this?

10. Sat’s recent diatribe about public servant plants for the PNM is more than just race baiting. It lends itself to racial antagonism, hate and fear mongering at the same time. It portends to be the blue print for the next general election which most studied comments suggest will be one of the nastiest in the electioneering history of Trinidad and Tobago. Politicians always find that racial antagonism always help when they area short on issues and long on injecting fear and prejudice. Worse yet, the Prime Minister did not rebuke Sat’s hate but rather complemented him by saying that nobody stops Sat from saying why he has to say, implying a subtle approval of his vitriolic words. We must not forget that this man stopped black children from attending Hindu schools, even though public money is what pays for the administration and teachers’ salary. While Sat is aware of the multi-ethnicity of our population, his promulgations are always Hindu an nature and promotional of pure Indian culture. He sees no integration of cultures and there promotes only a culture that is void of it’s West Indian influences. I could not help but notice a great Trinidadian senator telling us this in one of his commentary, “Institutions ensure fairness, justice, deliver education and healthcare and do the things which regulate, control and direct the society. Institutions, not politicians, ensure transparency, fair play and equality of opportunity………Rolph Balgobin – Unresponsibility and the Underworld, with the coming into being of a government run by the UNC, it’s leader makes no apology for concentrating her energies to show a distinct difference when dealing with her government’s desire to ensure that learning, health and services must be distributed to those of the South rather then to those of the North. She is forever telling her people that prior governments neglected them when all and sundry governmental spending were for the north. This is without doubt a schism which will play itself out without reservations when the campaigning is in full swing. It will be unmitigated racial strife when the ‘dirty campaigns’ start and there is no doubt that it will have unpardonable strife when all is said and done
    We need leaders who can heal, not antagonists for leaders. We are but a small, ethnically varied class of people where a small minority reap the benefits of almost one hundred percent of the government’s contracts and the rest are left to gasp in wanton digust because of the unfairness of this behavior. There is nothing wrong with a clarion call for ethnic solidarity but when that call infuses hate and fear for the others, then the conclusion must be that hate and division is the purpose of such language. I note with caution another excerpt from another commentator who stated, “Without social progress, ethnic solidarity is the fallback option for people in Caroni, the East-West Corridor and Tobago whenever leadership is uninspiring or where individuals own no significant stake in the activities that determine the timing, course, objectives and the conditions for implementing social action. The likelihood of falling back onto primal loyalties for security is higher the less accessible are decision-making procedures to us.”……..Lloyd Taylor – T&Ts Rebooting Problem. When Tobago delivered it’s voltes choice for a full THA assembly of PNM representatives, this same Sat called for a boycott of Tobago because it showed not sympathy for the UNC backed TOP. So, come 2015 if we see the closing of ranks based on ethnicity we have our beloved Sat Maharaj to thank for that.

11. Sat better get used to the idea that Rowley is going to be the new PM of T&T after the next election.

12. Sat Maharaj and the Public Service

    By Selwyn Ryan
    June 8, 2014

    The Secretary General of the Maha Sabha recently made certain windy allegations about the bureaucratic behaviour of PNM public servants. My belief is that the remarks were knowingly, falsely, and deliberately made to achieve a certain perverse effect. The issue which Maharaj sought to deal with was state failure. The reasons thereof of course vary, and are certainly not peculiar to Trinidad and Tobago to which we confine our remarks in this column.

    Full Article : trinidadexpress.com

13. “Colonialism and the resultant social dynamics of the time prescribed that Afros went into the public  sector while Indos went into the private sector, particularly in family businesses. “Dr Ryan
    I get it .Not only does a certain segment of our population , endorse the notion , as articulated by ‘de Faddah of their nation,’Basdeo, that “politics has a morality all of it’s own,”but they see higher office ,as a way of enhancing their further power grab, and personal, financial gain, si?
    It explains why corruption is so rampant in the private sector. The same bums , who have no compunction in purging the Public service , then saturating their middle , and higher ranks , with unqualified bozos, are yet reluctant, to hire members of ‘Afro Kinky head Nation,’outside of cleaners, and similar low end undesirables, si?
    Excellent article Dr Ryan, and yes, it provides a perfect opportunity for us to reiterate that ‘De Guyanarization of T&T , must never be allowed to take place, under any condition.
    Translation-1 term for dem, then it’s back to the political wilderness for a minimum of 15 years,hmmmmm?
    Let’s cut through the chase people .These ungrateful folks ,that comprise the PP, have done absolutely nothing, that can justify the voters giving them another term in office.Enough already!
    Stay vigilant T&T!

14. “Any man who tries to excite class hatred, sectional hate, hate of creeds, any kind of hatred in our community, though he may affect to do it in the interest of the class he is addressing, is in the long run with absolute certainly that class’s own worst enemy.”
    Teddy Roosevelt
    History would show , that the carcasses of many of our fellow global citizens , have littered, the soils , of numerous countries ,who often under, misguided notions of democratic freedoms , were reluctant to control/curb the ugly, divisive predilections of self serving ,race mongrels, and neo – tribal miscreants .
    ‘Where you at T&T?’
    More importantly, why no outrage by more civic, and political leaders, and the sleeping , co -opted editors , and agents of our Trini,corporate 4th Estate?
    Trust me when I say, no one would eventually listen, much less intervene,when smelly,disease laden , dark/brown items ,and waste substances ,start hitting dem symbolic fans, ummm?
    Yep, and let the charming Auntie Kamla’s , extremely close ,Spiritual adviser,Papa Sat, keep stirring up,’ dem bachac ants nests,’ and this will be the eventual fall out, some where in the not too distant future-‘as sure as night follows day.’
    Luv humanity people!

15. I have said this all along and I will continue to say. Black people in the Caribbean need to wake up. For Sat Maharaj, Kamla, and their blogging sycophants, fairness will only exist when T&T becomes a province of India, and is stratified along the lines where People of African descent become a permanent fixture beneath their feet. That is their motive, that is their aim, and if they had a majority population over the Caribbean it would have happened already.

    We need to stop being diplomatic, stop being politically correct, stop asking them to explain what they mean when we know full well what they mean. We know full well what their intentions are. It is thus up to us to ensure that we stop allowing them to guilt trip us into accepting their ethnic cleansing as some valid correction of the odious claims that they are making.

    Black people in the Caribbean wake up. There is no clause in our ancestors will that obliges us to always be the ones shouting one love, when there is no reciprocation. Like Malcolm X put it, although we have no problem with entering into a relationship of brotherhood and sisterhood with all groups, we must stop this insane obsession of seeking that relationship with those who do not want it. To hell with them>

    Our ancestors spent centuries in slave labor in these Caribbean territories. They have more than paid the cost for us to be in this geography, and to share in its wealth. We must stop being bothered by what they say, and go about the business of uniting among ourselves. We must stop wasting time on the narrative of brotherhood, when all that emanates from the Aryan ideologued supremacist is prejudice and hate. Let us do what we have to do to ensure that our beautiful twin island do not become a FIJI, or a Caribbean version of apartheid South Africa.

    Because regardless of our seeming unwillingness to see the truth, perhaps because the implications in it appear to be so unpalatable,what is confronting us today in T&T and Guyana is not a political disagreement on social and economic polices between different segments in a society. What is confronting us today is an assembly of ethnic supremacist political leadership, the descendants of those who arrived in T&T with the culture of the caste system from their Motherland and all of its prejudices intact. And over they years, rather than receding, it has developed into a facsimile of the same pattern of thinking that was pervasive among the rulers that enslaved our ancestors, and then connivingly and strategically brought in the one group of people in this world they were assured would mirror the prejudices and antipathy that they had for Africans. They knew that on arrival this new addition to the then Caribbean would see Africans as being lower in human status than them, and find gratification in a shared Aryan descendancy with they who were the former slave masters. They knew, were positive, that this shared racist perspective would define the relationship and interaction between Indian and African into perpetuity, and thus erase the risk of any coalition between black and brown against white. And today the evidence screams at us that not only was the former slave master right, he probably underestimated the degree to which members of these two Aryan strains from disparate continents had that one thing in common.

    So we must immediately change our direction. We must be bold in putting our positions forward. We must not allow the screaming accusations of “you are racist”, hurled at us from those with a cultural and religious history steeped in racist belief systems, to silence or sway us from our course. Allowing this would be analogous with the hen being told by the mongoose that she is cruel for not allowing him to feast on her eggs. It is dastardly and deceitful yes, but when you get to the point where I am at, to the point where I do not expect anything other than dastardly and deceitful to come from minds that are dastardly and deceitful, you will, as Barak Obama did early in his Presidency when demonstrating his response to those who called him names, flick it off your shoulders with contempt and disdain.

16. There is something stunningly truthful and strident about Rodwell’s comments. I would rather direct my comments to the blacks of Trinidad and Tobago than the other islands of the Caribbean because I believe that they are the most hypocritical and apologetic of all. To refute the comments that Rodwell observed is to blind and helpless. Sat Maharaj has said time and again that indenturism was worse than slavery. If it was so, how come there aren’t many of the descendants of the indentured carrying their masters’ name such as Smith, Washington, Robertson, George, Williams, Watson, Thomas etc etc, you know why? It was a crime for the slaves to carry their own name and had to carry that of his master to show that he was owned by them. How many of the indentured wives and children were taken from them and sold as cheap labour? Hoiw many of them stood by and watch their wives and loved one being raped and beaten by the masters? The evil of that trade was de-humaninzing and wrong. So, when one takes a podium to cheapen the experience of slavery to say “it ant that bad, look what we had to go through with identurism”, such sentiments and foolish talk is not amusing but downright stupid. Worse yet, when members of the black intellectual community stand by read these b.s and say nothing how can we really edify the less informed in our society? It is a disgrace to see those of the black privileged class being used by others only to satisfy their precious feelings of superiority. It is a shame to watch the behaviour of people like Wade Mark, Watson Duke, Errol McLeod, Ivor Archie and others playing the role of the Clint Eastwood characters with the theme ‘for a few dollars more’, I suppose the new name for that kind of service is ‘eat ah food’.
    Permit me to say that throughout our history there have always been those who would watch their kith and kin labour in the field, get beaten and locked up (justly or unjustly) and say nothing in their defence. The hypocrisy of the ‘house negro’ is that he does not feel a sense of kinship or shame, he wouod be the first to cuss the Tobagonian, the Grenadian, the St Lucian, the Vincentian or the Jamaican. History has given us very good reason to be proud of the Haitian and Jamaican. I know in Trinidad it is cliche’ to speak ill of the Jamaican but what what we must realise is that the Jamaican is respected worldwide because he is known to be a proud man to stand up for his race and country, he is portrayed in films and in TV as being the type of man who would work five jobs to take care of his family, he is represented in movies as a man who is not ashamed to speak the way he was brought up and have the oppressors speaking like him. He is proud and damn proud to be himself. The Trinidadian brother will think nothing of taking ‘a few dollars more’ to bump off his brother. In current trending look how proud Kamla and Gopeesingh were to read the results of the SEA exams. Should anyone wonder why? While we talk and struggle to maintain the Trinidadian identity, there are those who really dont give a hoot about it, why? because being identified as educated, moneyed and belonging to a superior race is more valuable and important than being labelled Trini. Being Trini is only important when the need arises to be so identified (so they think). Sat Maharaj is on record as offering $100,000 to anyone willing to write history in favor of the Indian in Trinidad. The black man has the history in the person of Butler, Williams, James, Thomas, Constantine and myriad of players and history making events, yet they are shy to come forth and speak proudly of them. The black man does not need to take a back seat or be a slave to anyone. The world history started with him and it will end with him. It is not just biblical it is also scientific, he must know it, live it and die by it.

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