No pundits, it is not so

Dr Moriba Baker

Religious leaders are to be held to a higher standard. They are supposedly the ones closest to God and therefore should be providing both moral and spiritual values to their congregants and those they meet. Their words should be divinely inspired and their thoughts pure and seasoned with love for fellowmen and women. However, when religious leaders use their public platforms to spew division and race bait it does not bode well for a society. When religious leaders cloud the facts in public, it makes me wonder what they do in private. When religious leaders see the worst in “us” there is no way their congregants can see the best in “us”.

So, to set the record straight, no, pundits Bramanand Rambachan and Satyanand Maharaj, East Indians are not under attack by blacks or urban youth. Nobody is planning to kill, steal and destroy you purely based on your race. Bullets are not trained on you while other races get a pass. Your homes are not targeted by race and miscreants aren’t youths from the East-West Corridor.

However, crime at its core needs three factors:

1. A motivated offender

2. An unsuspecting victim

3. An opportunity for 1 and 2 to meet.

Motivated offenders are not concerned with race and therefore an unsuspecting victim could be black, white, pink or purple. Motivated offenders are motivated by enriching themselves and nothing less. When my van was stolen from in front of my house, the motivated offenders did not stop to think whether they were stealing from a black Trinbagonian. Or when my friend’s father was brutally murdered while plying his taxi, the motivated offenders were not interested in the fact that he was a black Trinbagonian man. The motivated offenders were not concerned that as a black man he was working hard to provide for his son who was attending UWI. Or that his taxi was still on mortgage to the bank and killing this black Trinbagonian would have created a widow and children without a father. When my brother-in-law’s business was broken into, the motivated offenders did not suddenly get a moral compass because the owner was black. They were there to “put down a wuk” and my brother-in-law’s race was not going to defend him.

So, pundits Bramanand Rambachan and Satyanand Maharaj all crime in TT is a national problem and not an attack against the East Indian race. As motivated offenders increase, there is a greater and wider hunt for opportunities to meet unsuspecting victims wherever they are. As religious leaders your role is not to label people as miscreants but to do all you can to lead them to a positive change. Castigating does not decrease the motivation, however, creating positive other opportunities, definitely will. As pundits have you ever invested in the areas you think are of most concerns? Have you ever created positive opportunities for the youth that you fear? Do you really think comforting yourself with an erroneous narrative will change the situation? Of course not.

Nevertheless, we have heard that narrative before. We have heard the targeting without proof and we continue to shame ourselves internationally based on this. A few months ago, a doubles vendor went to Canada and sought to seek refugee status based on the grounds that as a doubles vendor he was targeted by criminal elements. Not surprisingly the judge was not willing to buy that narrative and neither should we. Targeting is not based on race but on motivation and opportunity. Criminals do not target one over the other and as pundits you should know that and not promote such a narrative to your congregants and others. As a nation we have enough challenges and nothing positive can come from attempting to create “us” against “them” solely based on race. Your statements will only fuel fires of divisions and set a stage for a war of races that will never end well. As a result, you should apologise for the offensive statements. You should spend some time trying to understand the causes of crime and do all that is in your power with the help of your congregants to address them. You should attempt to create opportunities within the communities you are most fearful of, invest in the youth there, encourage further development and stop race baiting.

Thankfully, one person in the audience spoke out about the dangers of your statements and recognised that there are also funders/instigators/initiators of crime from within your and other communities who are as much culpable as your “accused” perpetrators and all crime is not violent. However, addressing crime requires much more than just one speaking out. We all must play our part in ensuring that real opportunities exist for those most in need so that they are not baited by crime and seek out unsuspecting victims. Therefore, decreasing criminal motivation and crime is a national problem that needs a national solution not a racist one.