Yes, all the facts and names please

THE EDITOR: The recent revelations about an apparently secret relationship between the San Fernando General Hospital and an offshore medical university in St Lucia are very instructive. Just recently the COSTAATT issue was being exploited in some quarters as evidence of a racist plan to promote affirmative action in education by the current government.

Many claims have been made in Parliament that COSTAATT has a policy to discriminate in its recruitment on the basis of race and that special consideration would be given to “Afro-Trinidad” males. Now we hear that a local public hospital may have an unapproved policy to provide teaching services to the Medical School of the University of Windsor in St Lucia. While I am certain there is no written policy by the San Fernando General Hospital to provide assistance to schools that target East Indians, it may be useful to find out the reasons for supporting this particular school and the ethnic composition of its student body. One newspaper report alleges that “Most, if not all of Windsor’s students are from India or are of Indian origin.” It is interesting to note also that the discussions that led to this “arrangement” took place in 2000 when the UNC government was in power. This is the same UNC that is now so outraged by an alleged recruitment policy to target young Afro-Trinidad males.

Since everyone, including UNC parliamentarians, are calling for facts on recruitment and employment practices, it may be useful to find out the names of the senior San Fernando doctors who are running this programme for the University of Windsor. I wonder if these are the same doctors who claim to be overworked and underpaid and are often unavailable to attend to patients in the public health system? I would like to see a list of the names published boldly on the front pages just as the names of alleged victims of Petrotrin’s restructuring were published. Good for one, good for all. On the subject of Petrotrin, I find it unbelievable that the UNC can accuse anyone of ethnic cleansing at this company. When the UNC held the reins of power, an entire slate of managers was removed under the guise of “transformation.” Again I would urge the media to publish the names of all the managers and supervisors who were removed during this period through a mechanism called “constructive dismissal.” They must also publish the names of the Board members who supervised the removal of these managers and their reasons for doing so.

Some of those who are now crying out loudly about discrimination were among those who carried out a systematic policy to remove one group of people and replace them with another. That is why the revelations about the San Fernando Hospital doctors and the University of Windsor are so important. It reveals a pattern of behaviour in which one ethnic group was surreptitiously given preference in a number of key areas by the former UNC government. I agree with Anand Ramlogan, the new champion of human rights and racial equality. Let us publish all the facts and the names so that we can really see the true picture.

L CHARLES
La Romaine