What a Sunak prime ministership ought to mean

STEVE ALVAREZ

To many worldwide, Rishi Sunak’s rise to become Prime Minister of Britain on Divali Day is a victory for people of East Indian ancestry.

Many felt a sense of pride that someone accepted by some as Asian is now the most powerful man in the British Empire.

One media house published that his wealth is estimated at over £730 million makes him richer than the Royal’s whose wealth is reported to be about £370 million.

While the focus may be on the wealth and race of PM Sunak, many have missed the most important reason for his rise to power. He got the position based on merit. This Stanford graduate has a brilliant mind.

Perhaps the time is pertinent to look at other successful people seen as representatives of minority races. Lloyd J. Austin is an African American four-star General who is now the US Secretary of Defence. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, another African America,n is the US Ambassador to the United Nations.

Adebayo Ogunlesi, an African, is chairman and major shareholder of the company that owns Gatwick airport and was a lecturer at Harvard and Yale universities, Indra Nooyi, an East Indian was chairman of Pepsi from 2007 to 2019. She was a graduate of Madras University and Yale.

Sadiq Khan, of East Indian ancestry, is Mayor of London.

None of these people of minority races are there because of their race.

They have earned their places in the Sun. While some will no doubt point to their race with some levels of pride, the real pride should be in the determination for success and endeavours of these notable people.

The world is moving on, placing the best from among us to positions of power and leaving behind the ugly history of racial divisiveness.

In TT, we must learn from international best practices.

In every developed country worldwide, it is commonplace for societies to run themselves through structures of strong community-based management.

Water is equally distributed, and pressure balanced through gravity. Crime is suppressed through structured police patrols, quick access to justice, alternatives to criminal activities and education. Economic activity is encouraged through ease of doing business, modern reliable infrastructure, an educated mass, and political encouragement.

Food security is arrived through incentives to agriculture, access to markets, security and a plan that specifically maps out the crops, processing, and marketing of agricultural products. These goals can only be achieved is we employ the best from among us to get us where we ought to be.

Education, care for the elderly and the poor, sports, tourism and so much more needs to be also managed by our best and most competent personnel.

If we continue to vote for our managers based purely on race, we will end up with a lecturer in management being a health minister, a construction professional as minister of finance, and inefficiencies in almost every sector of our society.

If there is anything to be learnt from the ascension of Rishi Sunak, it should be that we must look beyond race and seek competence.

Editor’s Note: Regular Wednesday columnist Dr Gabriella Hosein is on leave. Her column will return soon.