Maravi

(GUARDIAN OF TRINIDADnTOBEGO) From Independence to Colonial status

From Independence to Colonial status
Tony Fraser
Published: 30 Jun 2010

We are into a period of national shame and disgrace, calling back the cork hat, the khaki-clad foreigner to lead the natives: Captain Baker on his horse, 48 years after independence, unable as our governments, the political directorate and the elites of the society have been to create a self-sustaining civilisation.

logoAnd this is so notwithstanding the fact that interdependence is demanded of 21st century nations. But as Lloyd Best would have said: a civilisation has to have something in hand, a culture, and a set of national institutions to be recognised as having self-worth in the global village.

This column, in holding to the position that the job of the CoP is one of those which should be held by a national, makes no apologies to the view that competence and not nationalism is the objective required to select a Commissioner of Police. Indeed, those who take that position do so having already concluded that competence and foreign go hand in hand; as do local and incompetence and incapacity. As indicated in last week’s column, selecting a CoP is about demonstrating national capability and confidence in nationhood; it is about cultivating a civilisation. The recommendation to install a foreigner, with four others in the line behind him, is indicative of a retreat from independence. Unfortunately, the Police Service is not the only example of this form of non-self. After 35 years of having a local for an archbishop, the Catholic Church here was taken back to colonial status having an American installed as leader, with scraps of an argument being offered for a rationale.

To lead the multi-billion dollar state construction sector, we had a foreigner; to refloat an airline, we imported a series of foreigners; we have had individual foreigners and management companies take charge of winning and processing of water. After the sterling and creative performance of Gally Cummings as local coach, inserting a local cultural self into the football and taking us to the brink of qualification for World Cup 1990, we back-tracked in the decade of the 1990s and beyond to find foreigners where ever we could rather than build on the legacy of the Strike Squad. Interestingly, this return to learned helplessness is occurring while energy multinationals such as BP, BG and BHP have placed locals in charge of their operations here. The said locals have pioneered in previously marked-off areas of complete foreign control, such as the construction of off-shore platforms. The multinationals have greater faith in our locals than we do. The gravity of this shameful incapacity to rise to nationhood was highlighted on Friday last as the MPs in the House of Representatives realised to the nation the “bad law” passed by a previous administration, and agreed to by the entire Parliament, without a murmur from the society.

But it is not just a matter of bad law; it is law passed with the deliberate intention to contract a foreigner because of the colonial frame that believes that when there are problems, this neo-colonial society could not possibly handle such matters and has to turn to foreigners. But the disaster does not end there. The Police Service Commission, through inadvertence and/or incompetence, did not eliminate two people with prior knowledge of the process from competing unfairly against others. Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar has said that the implications, both in perception and possibly law for such incompetence, are potentially dire. The problems of this country have been the result of incompetence, corrupt and self-seeking politicians at the top of the social and political ladder and those without the capacity to liberate the society from its colonial history. That is not xenophobia; it is a statement that indicates that our people, derived from the great civilisations of the world, have got to stop being seen to be incapable of governing ourselves in the basics of modern society.

This is a comment not on the senior officers in the service, but rather on the politicians and bureaucratic class of rulers who have not been able to overcome their deep sense of being second-class. “They could not say what federation meant. They are unable to say what independence means,” observed CLR James in his assessment of the middle class in office in the 1960s. It remains true in the early 21st century. But to clinically understand why the law was passed is to appreciate that the Manning government reached to the point of seeking a foreigner for the office of CoP after it completely misunderstood, mishandled and politicised criminality in the society. Instead of facing the reality of growing criminality, the then government went into denial: people being murdered amounted to mere collateral damage; the kidnappings were being faked; the opposition was colluding with criminals. At a second stage, the government began to openly engage with known criminals, it sought their assistance in electoral campaigns, public works programmes were turned over to the criminal enterprise, and the then Prime Minister went public with a commitment to hand state lands over to insurrectionists.

An hotelier was put in charge of national security as the Prime Minister minimised the importance of expertise and experience to handle the portfolio. For over five years he did nothing to replace a minister who had not achieved results. These were among the major factors which allowed criminal activity to grow and take hold of the society in the manner it has over the last decade; not the suggested incapacity of a local as CoP. But the previous Prime Minister and government do not have complete responsibility for the failures. What of the voices of the Opposition of the day when the legislation and rules and procurement procedures were being adopted? Whey did they not warn the national community of what the government was attempting. In similar manner, the local media failed to systematically analyse the unfolding events; ditto for the intellectual elites. But the present Parliament cannot hide behind “the law.” Parliament is sovereign and must find a way out without subjecting the country to this indignity. One way is to install one of the local deputies to act as CoP for a year while the legislation and procurement procedures are being fixed.

Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, TONY FRASER

posted by MrK @ 2:09 AM