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Political and religious interference of State Media?

15 November 2010 • 316 words, published in Express and Guardian

It is unfortunate that an issue of press freedom should have degenerated into allegations of religious bias.

Television talkshow host Fazeer Mohammed was very likely taken off the morning show because of the discomfort of the UNC part of the People’s Partnership with Mohammed’s attitude to Messrs Jack Warner, Vasant Bharath and Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The claims about cost-cutting and restructuring have persuaded few citizens, unless the Government is so disorganised that both line Minister Colin Partap and Finance Minister Winston Dookeran, as both have admitted, did not know anything about such measures. Ken Ali’s explanation is especially unconvincing in light of the fact that he’s an interim CEO acting without the authority of a board.

It appears that the Government needed some fig-leaf of an excuse to fire Mohammed which Foreign Affairs Minister Surujrattan Rambachan, a prominent Hindu, clumsily created by invoking religion as his point of departure, thus laying the groundwork for the allegation now being made by Muslim groups in Trinidad and Tobago.

We note, too, that in offering proof of religious bias, the Muslim spokesmen have argued that Catholicism and the dominant Hindu group here also disallow, as Mr Mohammed said, female leaders in their religion. This only proves the well-established fact that all major religions are sexist.

As far as religion plays a role in this issue, however, the only question is whether Mr Mohammed ever let his religious beliefs affect his professional conduct. Representatives from our Association have appeared several times on the First Up programme, usually to discuss matters pertinent to religion, and found Mr Mohammed to be an impartial interviewer.

Our Association has always promoted the principle that people are entitled to their personal beliefs as long as these do not affect public policy or, in this case, professional standards. This must be so whether people have strong religious beliefs, or equally strong disbelief, on matters of religion.

T&T Humanist Association

See There is no correlation between religion and ethics

See World Humanist Day 2009 - Importance of empiricism and ethics in public policy

See Should a leader impose belief over reason?

See TT Humanist : News : Launch : The Virtues of Secularism (PDF)