Med school admissions not pro-Indian

The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Inc endorses the call for an investigation into the admissions criteria of UWI’s Medical College, Mt Hope made recently by Prof Courtenay Bartholomew. This call for an investigation was also endorsed by vascular surgeon Prof Vijay Narinesingh on Radio Jaagriti 102.7 FM in an exclusive interview.

Narinesingh said that he “thinks it is a very good idea for a commission of enquiry to be set up to investigate the admissions because there is a need to ensure that it is transparent and students are dealt with fairly and if that is what it takes to ensure that the public is satisfied, then it is a fair system.”

Some have taken the call by Prof Courtenay Bartholomew as one which implies that there is a bias to admit Indo-Trinidadians to the medical school over their Afro-Trinidadian counterparts. In particular one radio station with a clear ethnic bias has taken this racial slant and essentially engaged in ethnic mobilisation around this issue.

Ironically, when interviewed on the very same radio station Bartholomew indicated that at no point did he imply that there was racial discrimination in the admissions procedure. Indeed the admissions committee at Mt Hope is chaired by Dr Phyllis Pitt-Miller, who is but one of several persons of African origin on the committee. To suspect that they actively discriminated against Afro-Trinidadian students is farcical at best.

In his letter to the Minister of Tertiary Education Mustapha Abdul Hamid, Prof Bartholomew called for a commission of enquiry into the admissions and wrote: “Over the years I have received many complaints of alleged discriminatory or preferential admission practices in the selection of certain students for entry into medical school here, several of which I am sure are not valid.”

He continued: “However, I could not personally verify any of these until it was experienced in a most glaring way by two members of my competent and dedicated staff of the Medical Research Foundation, who in addition to their A’Levels had BScs from very reputable universities in the USA and impressive extra curricular health-related activities while there.”

Minister Abdul-Hamid on the radio station championing affirmative action at Mt Hope said: Based on information he had received, Indo-Trinidadian students had an advantage when applying for entry at the faculty. His understanding of this is that on the basis of A’Level performance, large numbers of students of East Indian descent were, in fact, gaining entry into the Faculty of Medical Sciences.”

“This is my understanding…I do not have empirical evidence. It is on the basis of information that has come to me as line minister,” he said.

So without any real evidence, the Minister of Tertiary Education takes action because there are too many Indians at Mt Hope for his comfort. This line of affirmative action at the University of the West Indies is consistent with a similar recommendation made by Dr Keith Rowley regarding Afro-Trinidadian males at UWI some years ago.

This policy is also consistent with the policy of the government to alter the admission policy of the pharmaceutical board to admit pharmacists from Phillipines.

Prof Selwyn Ryan and Prof John La Guerre, through the Centre for Ethnic Studies of UWI St Augustine were commissioned to study and report on Employment in the Public and Private Sector more than 16 years ago. They both found that “there were indeed imbalances in the number of Indo-Trinidadian in the public sector.”

Ryan, writing in the Sunday Express of July 8, attempts to justify the imbalance he found by saying, “The demographic dynamics that were at work in the society as a result of what was occurring at the schools were manifesting themselves at the middle levels of the public service…the demand for equity and parity would come increasing from the Afro-Trinidadian element.”
Neither Prof Bartholomew nor Prof Ryan expressed concern and demanded enquiring into the deliberate suppression of Indians despite their superior qualifications for available jobs and promotions. Now they are both bothered by the hardworking Indian students. Rather than encourage Afro parents to guide their children to excellence, they find reasons for poor performance.

Prof Bartholomew knows the answer as he wrote on November 20, 2005, in the Sunday Express: “Indo-Trinidadians were making better use of the available educational opportunities than Afro-Trinidadians, who seem to have succumbed to the culture of the extended Carnival.”
The Maha Sabha recommends that the Ministry of Education be investigated for its promotion of the “extended Carnival” mentality under the guise of “excellence”!

The Maha Sabha calls for a commission of enquiry into not only Mt Hope but also in the awarding of scholarships to St Georges Medical School, Grenada, the scholarships to study architecture, appointments and promotions in the public service, disbursements of cultural grants and the behaviour of the Ministry of Housing towards Indo-Trinidadian applications for housing and other grants.

Fockin gee dem boy Sat! But yuh have to put it more plain for these fockers to undertand.

The fact is niggas dont want to study, dem only want to party and bull. Make fockin nigglets like dogs all over the fockin place and pre occupy dey self wid bling, Sentra, fockin gold teeth and how to rob coolie people. Tell dem fockers to pick up ah book and dat is like ah jail sentence. Go in any bookstore in any part of the world and see how much niggas perusin books with the intention of making ah purchase. Now go to ah fockin shoe store and see the difference.

Mustapha Abdul Hamid is ah nigga lover, that is the only way he coulda geh wife or should I say wives. He belong to the Jamaat al Muslimeen and dat is how he get the position in Govt. As a matter of fact he was one of the honchos during the coup that was suppose to take over the airport, its just that the fockin army reach before and the mudder cont run away. So he will support anything niggas say, he existence depend on niggas.

Why d fock Bartholomew, Hamid, Cudjoe, Ryan, Le Guerre and dem fockers doh look at the fockin Police Service, the Army, the Coast Guard, the Civil Service, TSTT, T&TEC, WASA and all the top spots in State institutions and say we need affirmitve action for coolies. Why d mudder cont they aint see how fockin Manning tried to block the promotion of coolies (Feroza Ramjohn, Ganga Persad Kissoon, Devant Maharaj) in the Civil Service and when dey take d mudders cont to court they win their cases based on discrimination?

Fock niggas, all they want to do is fete.