SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Ch­agua­nas West MP Jack Warn­er has con­demned state­ments by Nizam Mo­hammed, the head of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion about the racial com­po­si­tion in the hi­er­ar­chy of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice.Warn­er, the Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port, said such state­ments would on­ly serve to hurt race re­la­tions in this coun­try at a time when the Gov­ern­ment is try­ing to de­vel­op se­ri­ous na­tion­al uni­ty. The Min­is­ter took time out to speak to the me­dia yes­ter­day morn­ing at his con­stituen­cy of­fice where more than 500 peo­ple had gath­ered to see him, seek­ing help for var­i­ous is­sues.

Speak­ing at a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee meet­ing last week, Mo­hammed said ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice to the Di­rec­tor of Per­son­nel Ad­min­is­tra­tion, Ser­vice Com­mis­sion De­part­ment Glo­ria Ed­wards–Joseph on the eth­nic com­po­si­tion of lead­er­ship in the Po­lice Ser­vice, out of 59 po­si­tions on­ly ten were held by East In­di­ans. He did not spec­i­fy whether the fig­ures were for the cur­rent pe­ri­od.Warn­er said Mo­hammed's state­ments would on­ly serve to give op­po­nents of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple bent on racial seg­re­ga­tion the am­mu­ni­tion they need­ed."He has played in­to the hands of Kei­th Row­ley," Warn­er added.Warn­er said Mo­hammed had noth­ing to gain when he made his state­ments.

Warn­er said the his­to­ry of the Po­lice Ser­vice shows that Afro-Trinida­di­ans en­tered in­to the ser­vice at a time when In­do-Trinida­di­ans did not want to join the ser­vice. He said: "What could he (Mo­hammed) hope to gain. If it is not right for Cro Cro or Sug­ar Aloes to di­vide the coun­try, how could it be right for him?"Warn­er said In­di­ans hold high po­si­tions in oth­er arms of gov­ern­ment and in sev­er­al pri­vate and pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions. Cit­ing an ex­am­ple, he said the top three of­fi­cers on the Law Com­mis­sion were In­do-Trinida­di­ans.A seem­ing­ly up­set Warn­er said he was "dis­ap­point­ed," and dis­so­ci­at­ed him­self from Mo­hammed's state­ment.