When will we—if ever—banish the colonial-type notion that almost any project we undertake of a national nature and importance would be of supreme value if it is engineered by these so-called foreign experts?

When—if ever—will we have absolute faith in our home–grown experts who have time and time again proven their value as being on par with their international colleagues?

When will we—if ever—as a nation draw the strength and courage to tell our political directorate, which ever party they may belong to, that it is time to stop insulting our collective intelligence, dignity, self-esteem, national pride and self worth?

It appears that we are doomed to forever cast our eyes outside when we have more than competent and qualified nationals willing and capable of solving so many of our internal problems.

The case in point today is the government’s recent hiring at a cost of more than $5 million, Dr Stephen Mastroski—a criminologist from somewhere out there to look at our police service.

I am not that insular not to recognise that the world today is a global village and we must, of necessity, look outside for help in some areas of our overall development.

But what can Mastroski (I can’t even properly pronounce the gentleman’s name) tell us about police reform that others—foreign and local—haven’t told us before?

What magic wand can this gentleman wave at such a hefty price tag to eradicate problems in that area, and ultimately the crime situation, that our own professionals cannot do today?

I see only one person today who has been diligently toiling in this area for as long as I can remember, producing numerous reports and papers on a subject he deals with a kind of evangelical passion.

I am sure that most of us must know when we speak about studies in crime and criminology I must be referring to Dr Ramesh Deosaran, university professor and head of the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice on the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies.

He may be most likely feeling a bit embarrassed saying: here I am. Or perhaps hoping the authorities would give him a job or a contract of one kind or the other. Far from that. Dr Deosaran, an independent senator, does not need a job but I am sure if asked he would gladly accept another opportunity to serve his nation.

I am doing this because I am bloody well mad that here it is we have the expertise, we have the people who were born here, who know our people more than anyone else and yet we are somewhat telling them they are not competent enough to assist in our own development.

Those responsible for inflicting yet another lethal right hook to our national psyche are no doubt saying: we the wise ones are going to blank you and go outside for help. Such utter rubbish!

Dr Deosaran has authored many studies that I don’t have enough space to look at half of them but, for the record, I will briefly examine a few of them and put it before you, my dear readers, in an effort to show that our so-called leaders are still wedded to the myopic belief that anybody selling an idea with a foreign accent is infinitely better than our own.

In 2001, Dr Deosaran who is also a United National Congress consultant on the topic prepared a paper called, “Crime Statistics Analysis and Policy Action; the Way Forward.”

One of his recommendations is for the engaging of the respective communities in setting realistic benchmarks for each particular crime in its community.

This will help encourage such communities to share in the crime reduction and crime prevention responsibilities, with well–targetted projections.

In June 2001, he submitted a research/policy report called “A human resource survey of community policing and organisational readiness in Trinidad Tobago Police Service, the fractured human factor: Healing the Police.”

In this document he stressed the need for more support and encouragement for community policing to be given by senior officers (for example, 43 per cent of officers indicated that not enough support and encouragement is given by senior officers for community policing).

For community police to be effective, senior officers must be avid supporters of the concept and eager to provide the necessary resource for officers.

By the way, what has become of the community police division?

He also recommended the strengthening of an employee assistance programme made fully operational across all police divisions in light of the marked areas of discontent and stress within the Police Service.

He also called for the immediate establishment of a multi-disciplinary crime research, statistics and policy centre related to but outside the direct control of the police service.

Unfortunately I have to stop at this juncture but I will continue this topic next Friday.