Dear Editor,
As reported on April 6 last by the Stabroek News, the newly appointed Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. Clifton Hicken announced that “the force will be seeking to increase its human resources with diversity being a key aspect of its recruitment drive,” a diversity to reflect the “six races.” Concerns regarding the ethnic imbalance of the GPF are not new.
Several Commissions of Enquiry, most notably the International Commission of Jurists going back to 1964 following the Wismar massacre, have made repeated recommendations aimed at ethnic balance. Even the Disciplined Forces Report of 2004 which was approved by Parliament in 2010 has gone unheeded. Regrettably, we are nowhere near achieving this goal with the ethnic structure of the GPF being the same for almost six decades since the ICJ report.
It will be interesting to see how Commissioner Hicken’s plans evolve especially in light of the fact that almost a month later, there has been no comment from the government on the announcement, though one may assume that Mr. Hicken would not make such a major announcement without the state involvement, or at least the involvement of the Ministry of Home Affairs. This can lead to the conclusion that in addition to the institutional resistance within the force to the idea of ethnic balance that we often hear about, there also seems to be no political will to remedy the situation.
Nevertheless, we commend the progressive and forward-looking policy of inclusivity at the ethnic level and hope that other institutions in Guyana can follow suit. One such institution in Guyana where there is an unconscionable and unforgivable ethnic imbalance is the nation’s highest centre of learning, the University of Guyana, something that is indisputably evident when we look at the composition of the university administration and faculty.
The university has educators of a wide array of social sciences disciplines – historians, sociologists, political scientists some of whom are also activists who are quite vociferous on all kinds of issues from racism to gender issues but who at the same time are comfortable with the status quo of ethnic imbalance right in their backyard, even as they chant the mantra of diversity, equity, and inclusivity.
All over the world universities are responding more and more to the need for diversity, equity, and inclusivity. In the United Kingdom and the United States, for example, we see a massive movement at such transformation in some of the most prestigious universities such as Harvard and Oxford. Such has been the call for diversity that universities have begun dumbing down the criterion for even student admission often at the expense of students from other ethnic communities.
So, it would be a wonderful thing if, say, the Vice-Chancellor of the University were to declare a policy seeking ethnic diversity, equity, and inclusivity in the administration and faculty, for a start. This will go a far way to restore transparency and confidence and we could possibly get back to the glory days when the University of Guyana was a leading educational institution in the commonwealth.
Talking about educational institutions, as far as I am aware, the Bishops’ High school has never had an Indian headmaster or headmistress, and with respect to Queen’s College, the one and only Indian who headed the school was Doodnauth Hetram. There seems to be an unspoken convention, or perhaps more, that these two schools are forbidden territory when it comes to Indian leadership even though there is always a plethora of Indian educators in the country.
At the Caribbean level, the CARICOM Secretariat continues to be ethnically heavily lopsided in the general administrative staff, and to date, since its founding, it cannot find a qualified Indian for leadership position. But far worse in this shame is CXC. Its ethnic imbalance is even more blatant. If at the level of education in Guyana and the Caribbean, at the university and at CXC which are responsible for nurturing future generations there continues to be an unshakeable and systemic ethnic imbalance that does not trouble the conscience of our educators, the ideal of a just and compassionate society will continue to evade us.
Yours faithfully,
Swami Aksharananda
