Questions for Bhoe Tewarie

On July 31 2003, Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s National Association for the Empowerment of African People (NAEAP) President Prof Selwyn Cudjoe urged the University of the West Indies (UWI) to follow the recent American decision to make race a criterion for university admission. At this function Cudjoe essentially implied that “80 percent of university students (in UWI) consist of one race... Our universities cannot be 90 percent East Indians and ten percent black people.”

Cudjoe’s racist statement was not viewed as important by anyone until the Maha Sabha took issue with it. This is perhaps indicative of the level of importance or lack thereof given to Cudjoe by the national community. However the ideas raised by Cudjoe, given his proximity to the government, demanded a response. The clarion call to implement affirmative action at the university has generated tremendous amount of discussion in the public arena since it was made. Yet with the exception of a single appearance on television by UWI Principal Dr Tewarie, the entire university has been loudly silent on this issue. The university in any society is supposed to be the seat of higher learning, yet the academics at UWI seem prepared to maintain UWI as a degree mill and totally aloof from the society which it is located. In the recent past, on very rare occasions has the university come out to engage society in meaningful debate. The university instead comes out only when there is a fund raising effort, the annual Carnival fete, or have its academics appointed to a government commission.

In this discussion a serious indictment has been made against the university admissions office and selection office. Cudjoe (“On willful recalcitrance and ethnic blindness” Newsday 22/8/03) announces “we know that UWI students are not selected on the basis of grades alone” and later speculates that this is “how ethnic and religious biases can play themselves out in admissions office.” Later in the article Cudjoe goes on to assert that “since the selection of these students involve subjective judgments one must always consider the biases of the selectors.... In other words it is not preposterous to suggest that an 80 percent student body at UWI or TTIT is not and cannot be the results of the students grades alone.” The staff composition of UWI is also called into question. Dr Cudjoe asks “one would also like to know what percentage of the faculty is Indian?” The implication is that even the faculty staff is dominated by Indians at UWI adding to the accusation stemming from the admissions committee. Dr Cudjoe is again calling the appointment of the Principal of UWI into question as he comments ‘the principal of UWI achieved his position because of his ethnic affiliation rather than his academic achievements.”

Dr Tewarie were you indeed given your position under the United National Congress and the Panday Administration merely because you were an Indian and the Administration emerged from an Indian support base? Indeed what was the role of the other Caribbean nations that were required for this appointment? Did the so-called corrupt UNC also corrupt the rest of the Caribbean in appointing the principal? This accusation made repeatedly since the appointment of Dr Tewarie has seriously undermined the position at the university. Too often lecturers and department heads snicker at the Indian principal, and guess at his ethnic bias. The ethnic composition of the faculty and the role ethnicity played in the appointment of the principal demands attention and a response when married with the racist statement made in follow-up commentary by Dr Cudjoe. “Every Trinidadian knows that once an Indian gets into an institution their communal tendencies are to bring along another member of their group with them.” (Sat Maharaj’s Delusion 7/9/03) Like most of the statements made by Cudjoe, these racist observations are not supported by hard facts or figures but merely made for media attention with their wild, wicked, vindictive, skew. Dr Tewarie is the admissions of UWI flawed and bias as Dr Cudjoe implies? Clearly this accusation is an assault on the integrity of UWI and indeed can have an impact on the accreditation of the institution.

Indeed, Dr Tewarie, is a serious issue as the discussions have even managed to touch the Prime Minister of  Trinidad and Tobago. Yet the university still remains deaf, dumb and mute to the issues to which it is most relevant. A typographical error in the Maha Sabha Secretary General Sat Maharaj weekly newspaper column responding to Dr Cudjoe’s article further exacerbated the issue. Maharaj’s column, which read: “The problem with Cudjoe, Afros and education is essentially one of culture. This is not only a Trinidad problem, more a genetic one.” The sentence should have read “nor a genetic one.” (September 3, 2003) Despite a correction, which subsequently appeared in the offending newspaper Cudjoe malevolently exploited the newspaper’s error to label the Maha Sabha in a virtual media campaign in the most abhorrent terms. With both Maharaj and Cudjoe threatening to resign from the Prime Minister’s Race Relations Committee as a result, Prime Minister Manning said neither Selwyn Cudjoe nor Sat Maharaj would be allowed to resign from the Cabinet-appointed committee on race relations (September 5, 2003). Importantly Dr Tewarie what is the university’s position on the recommendation of Dr Cudjoe that some sort of racial quota system should be employed in the admission criterion? Are grades are as Cudjoe suggests “at best dubious and incomplete measures of one’s ability to be successful at a university?” These issues cut at the heart of the discussion and demand a response from the academic world. Where are those closely associated with the university and the media, such as Dr Hamid Ghanny, Dana Seetahal, Dennis Pantin, Dr Selwyn Ryan, Dr Kirk Meighoo, etc on this matter. Will the university remain silent on this and in essence give tacit confirmation that Cudjoe is correct?

Yours in Dharma
Parsuram Maharaj
Executive Member
Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Inc.