Prof Samaroo: Educate the young criminal element on their history

PROFESSOR Emeritus Brinsley Samaroo made an appeal to the nation to “conscientise” the young criminal element by educating them in the life and culture of their ancestors, rather than fighting them.

Addressing the inaugural Adrian “Cola” Rienzi Memorial Forum Award 2023, on Saturday, Samaroo said the trade union movement has a role in shaping and revising the education system.

“The nation should involve itself in the study of the life and culture of all our peoples. That is quite absent in the schools. The Hindu and the Muslim communities have understood this and so they have many radio stations and television stations that talk about their ancestry.

“Not so the rest of the community. As a politician of long standing, I was fortunate enough to interact quite often with young people and these young people in society are not foolish.

“When you think about the way in which they plan a robbery, plan a heist, how carefully they do it, it shows they have sense. But the rest of the country has decided to fight these bright, young people of the criminal element.”

He cautioned, “the more you fight them, the more they fight you back; successfully because they are not stupid.”

Questioning and answering the method to get around that, he said, “by getting them wherever they are, not necessarily in the schools, and tell them about their past.

“Tell them about their ancestry. Tell the young African person, for example, about great African civilisations that existed, about the tremendous African heritage that you have in TT.”

He debunked the myth that it was the Indentured Indians who introduced Islam in TT.

“That is not true. It is African slaves who introduced Islam in TT. How many people know that?

“How many African people know that? How many of them are inspired by all the plants, the animals, the religious rituals that came from large African kingdoms that existed.

“None of this is included in the text books or in the teaching,” he bemoaned.

“These people from the criminal elements are not foolish people, they can all be conscientised, they can all be uplifted, by telling them about themselves and about their past and the great traditions from which they come.”

Samaroo suggested, “That the rarer action is in virtue, rather than in vengeance. We cannot create a viable and sustainable civilisation unless all the cultures are included in the forward thrust.

“I can’t talk about that in terms of physical...This is something profoundly spiritual and that is path to which the nation should now get involve because we have to encourage unity in diversity but no uniformity

“You have a diversity of cultures working together, but I say no uniformity because we don’t want everybody to subscribe to precisely the same thing.

“The Syrians must be allowed to practice their Syrian culture and their Syrian rituals and their observances. Africans, Indian, Chinese, all of us.

“Unity in diversity but no uniformity that is a mission that all of us, particularly the young people should take up as a mantra.”