Foreign-used in the HouseBy SEAN DOUGLAS Sunday, July 4 2010
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Colm Imbert on his feet in the House Friday....
EVEN as Works Minister Jack Warner on Friday lamented the purchase of an old foreign-used fast-ferry, the Lower House ironically went on to approve the hiring of what some might say is a “foreign used” Police Commissioner in the form of a retired Canadian national, Dwayne D Gibbs.
Warner said the former regime spent $64 million to buy and fix a boat, the HSV Su, which will not give a day of service as a water-taxi but is instead now to be sold on a depressed ship-market on an “as is, where is basis”, in a saga Warner said reeked of “gross incompetence”, a conflict of interest, and a “down spiral of mismanagement”. However the House was to hear of the even more pressing matter of the selection of a new CoP to replace Acting Police Commissioner, James Philbert, the week after the House had previously rejected the Police Service Commission’s (PSC) first nominee, Neal Parker.
Trinidad and Tobago is about to appoint a foreigner to head the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, the month before the country gears up to celebrate its 48th year of “Independence”.
While the Government had last week claimed its hands are tied by a selection process set out in the Constitution that lets the Police Service Commission (PSC) offer nominees, many citizens will surely be asking whether this is what they voted for in the recent General Election and of course whether or not this will become a platform issue in the July 26 Local Government elections.
The House voted for Mr Gibbs, with 25 in favour on the Government side, none voting against, and the 10 Opposition MPs present abstaining.
Leader of Government Business, Dr Roodal Moonilal, moved the motion proposing Gibbs and clearly relished the moment, especially the discomfiture of the Opposition. Moonilal began by trying to sound statesmanlike, calling for Opposition support for Mr Gibbs in what he saw as an anti-crime measure.
However, as he lamented “murder, kidnapping, rape, home invasion and now land invasion”, it was hard to decide if his lament that, “We are at war”, sounded more like British wartime leader Winston Churchill, or US rapper Kanye West of “Jesus Walks” fame.
Moonilal then used the occasion to rub salt in the wound of the defeated former PNM leader and former prime minister Patrick Manning sitting on the lower end on the single Opposition bench, whom in fact Moonilal had once challenged unsuccessfully for the San Fernando East seat.
Saying the CoP selection was now more participative and was no longer subject to a prime ministerial veto, Moonilal pointed at Manning – who in the three sittings of the House so far has looked like a shadow of his former self – and quipped, “Our friend from San Fernando East is not as close to us as he was in the previous incarnation.” Manning didn’t stick around later that evening for the final vote.
Minutes later, Moonilal rubbed it in again by saying the Government was being nice in seeking the Opposition’s support for a motion for which the Government already had enough of its own votes to pass. It was a verbal double-edged sword – reaching out to embrace but then giving a back-hand slap of sorts.
Spelling out the PNM’s sharp reversal of fortune on May 24, an expansive Moonilal quipped, “We have the majority. I see it on this side...and I see it on that side,” pointing to the Government’s third bench of MPs located uncomfortably behind the single rank of PNM MPs. “I can’t help but see the majority,” he laughed. “But that is not our approach. We are very humbly asking the Opposition to give us your support.”
Moonilal claimed that the Opposition PNM had never before had a problem with a foreigner being suggested as CoP, as he questioned their stance now.
Referring to debates on previous police legislation in 2004, 2006 and 2008, Moonilal said he could find no evidence that the PNM had previously been concerned over the nationality of the Commissioner of Police.
“It appears that this is a concern of the newly-appointed Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the PNM (Diego Martin MP Dr Keith Rowley). It appears to be a concern that is arising,” Moonilal said. In fact, Moonilal claimed that the then PNM Leader of Government Business, Colm Imbert, in a parliamentary debate on July 4, 2008, to choose a new CoP, had expressed support for the idea of a foreigner. Moonilal quoted Imbert as having lamented that if an a nominee does not have a university degree, then the selection is limited to only local candidates but not overseas candidates. Moonilal said Imbert had also once spoken of “flexibility” and “head-hunting” to get a new CoP, both phrases which he implied allude to a foreigner.
Moonilal hit, “The Opposition has taken a policy U-turn on this matter – which they are entitled to do, after May 24” (the date of the general elections which the PNM lost badly to the People’s Partnership).
However, the Opposition was not swayed and not only did they abstain on the vote when put by Speaker Wade Mark, but they raised their own concerns about the specific background of Mr Gibbs.
Even as Moonilal read out a list of Gibbs’ purported degrees and the issuing institutions, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley loudly shouted, “where?”
Later in addressing the House, Rowley questioned the validity of a purported Master’s in Business Administration Degree and a purported PhD Degree in community policing that Gibbs’ resume lists as coming from one California Coast University.
Diego Martin North East MP Colm Imbert earlier challenged the veracity of the two degrees by alleging that California Coast University was a diploma mill and by asking how was it possible for one man to be awarded two degrees in the same year, 2006, when to earn even just one of the degrees is usually a very demanding endeavour.
“While the member (Moonilal) was speaking, I used my Blackberry and did a search on ‘California Coast’...I have pulled up several hits and I would just want to read one of them to members...The General Accounting Office of the United States has identified California Coast University as a diploma mill. This is in 2005. An investigation showed that California Coast University sold degrees for a flat fee.”
Imbert said he had taken just one minute to “google” California Coast University’s status. “I would expect the Government is aware of this, since the Government is proposing Mr Dwayne Gibbs for the Commissioner of Police. I assume that the Government has done some research....”
Alluding that Gibbs’ course of study for the “degrees” had taken just a year, a disbelieving Imbert quipped, “I must say that is fast. That is fast. The normal time to get a PhD is about four years. Some people do it in three, some people do it in six, Mr Gibbs seems to have done it in one, from the California Coast.
“I assume that when the Government made its decision to support Mr Gibbs, they investigated the fact that the gentleman has obtained two degrees from this university which is accused of being a diploma mill in one year. I’m assuming you did that, and having done your research and come and discovered that is so, I’m assuming you decided that that was not a sufficient reason for you to have a second look at this candidate.”
Imbert said the Opposition was not going to get involved in appointing Mr Gibbs, vowing not to support or oppose him.
Moonilal, in his wrap up of the motion, later defended Gibbs.
Meanwhile the literature online paints a very confusing picture of the validity of California Coastal University. The Wikipedia website says it was investigated by the US General Accounting Office in 2003, but by 2005 had been given some level of accreditation by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) which itself is said to be recognised by the US Dept of Education. However, Wikipedia also said DETC had only authorised California Coastal University to award doctorates in 2010, but not in 2006 when Gibbs got his supposed PhD. Otherwise it was a week of mixed fortunes for the People’s Partnership (PP) Government. On the good side they began to award funds for children needing costly medical surgery via the Life Fund. However, Attorney-General Anand Ramlogan criticised Acting Cop James Philbert in what some observers were saying may have been too fiery a tone of delivery. Many observers were left wondering about the removal of a picture of COP leader Winston Dookeran from a poster advertising the PP’s rally to launch their Local Government campaign held on Friday at Chaguanas. The removal of Dookeran’s picture came just as news came that Jack Warner, not Mr Dookeran, is to be Acting Prime Minister while Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar attends this week’s Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Jamaica. Many had expected the honour of being Acting PM to be given to Mr Dookeran.
Also of concern is how well the PP member-parties, especially the UNC and COP, have settled their differences on the selection of candidates to fight the 134 council seats up for grabs on July 26. Reports are that the PNM held a very smooth selection process for several days last week at Balisier House for their candidates who will be presented at today’s PNM Convention at Chaguaramas.
