Deosaran attacks ‘pseudo-intellectuals’

EVEN as he launched an attack on “pseudo-intellectuals” pontificating on the issue of race, Independent Senator Professor Ramesh Deosaran urged government to deal with the problem of under achievement among Afro-Trinidadian males, which, he said, was the direct consequence  of “a vastly and severely distorted” education system. Deosaran was piloting his motion in the Senate on Tuesday which calls on Government to have live broadcasts of  Parliamentary debates and proceedings. As he argued that the broadcasting of Parliament could help in dealing with “mass ignorance,” Deosaran commented on the COSTATT issue. He said he had already gone on record as saying that if a high proportion of state resources was being used on the East-West Corridor that was justifiable because it was the most “troublesome” area in Trinidad and Tobago.”It happens to be coincidental that the vast majority of people who live there...happen to be of one ethnic background,” the Independent senator noted.

He said the COSTATT policy of recruitment which identified a particular group — Afro-Trinidadian males —  for “emphatic consideration” should have been accompanied by empirical data.  Stressing that the COSTATT policy was “badly presented” to the population, Deosaran said: “There should have been some concept paper driven by some empirical analysis to justify the target group,” he stated. He said all governments had made this mistake of presenting policy, unsupported by the relevant data, so that when it is challenged, the whole issue ends up in a flurry of controversy. Deosaran lamented that the quarrel over ethnic inequity  and the ethnic discourse had been unnecessarily bitter because it was being fuelled and  “propelled” by pseudo-intellectuals  and self-proclaimed leaders”. Saying that the Governments and Ministers didn’t really listen, Deosaran stated that the country would always have this problem of the black male youth because the education system was so vastly and severely distorted. “We  have one kind of schools which put out high quality students and the vast majority of schools putting out these (problem) 17- 20 year old males. If you do not heal that breach...you will always have to look after this (latter) group,” he stated.

Deosaran thundered: “And that is the number one challenge. COSTATT (recruitment programme) cannot do it because there would always be the supply side...[So] You [merely] doing a mopping up job (with COSTATT),” he said. Deosaran said live broadcast was important because there was so much mass ignorance, “almost a culture of deliberately-held, educated ignorance” that had spawned a lot of ethnic misunderstanding. Saying that  high quality intervention at the level of Parliament could heal some of the wounds which existed in the society, Deosaran stated the “Indian” and “African” “contortions which we read and hear about” were “deficient” and “captured” by “pseudo-intellectualism”. And, he asked who was speaking for that growing 20 per cent of “douglas” in the society. As an aside, he added that the word “pseudo” meant “not real” and therefore a “pseudo-racist” was not a real racist. “So I don’t know if the term could be taken as seriously as it seems to have been taken,” he said. Noting that the behaviour of some MPs have drawn criticism, Deosaran said  his faith in human nature  told him that the behaviour of MPs would improve “significantly”  if the proceedings were broadcast live, “because they would recognise that there is a fuller audience witnessing - “whether it is their antics or their gracious behaviour”. 

Saying that the public would not just see just the “dramatic line”, but the full context in which such  behaviour takes place, Deosaran stated that people would be able to separate “the goat from the sheep” rather than make a blanket condemnation of all MPs. Deosaran argued that the broadcasting would bring Parliament closer to the people. “We need to breathe free life into Parliament especially with respect to the relationship between the MPs and their constituents,” he said, adding that currently there was a deficiency in “grassroots democracy” as a result of the present policy. Noting that there are times when members of Parliament, especially those in the Opposition would say, they have no say, (in policy formulation), Deosaran said he believed that if proceedings were brought fully and directly to the people, this problem could be remedied since public opinion was a vital source of empowerment. Deosaran also called for full-time Parliament, saying that it would help to deal with the bottleneck in the legislative programme which would become more “politically claustrophic” with time. He noted that a Parliament committee in 1989 recommended the live broadcast of House proceedings. And one of the persons supporting it was Patrick Manning, he said.