No Massive Imbalance of Public Sector Boards

In today’s Sunday Express  (31st march 2013) Dr Selwyn Ryan in an article entitled “Who’s in the Board Room” has debunked the idea that the People’s Partnership Govt is guilty of racial discrimination in the appointment of Board Chairmen and Membership of Boards.

And what did Dr Ryan find on examination of the composition of the Boards and Cabinet. Here is an extract from Ryan’s article in the Express of Sunday March 31st 2013.

DATA COLLECTED UP TO MAY 14, 2012, SHOW THAT THERE IS NO MASSIVE IMBALANCE IN THE MEMBERSHIP AND CHAIRMANSHIP OF PUBLIC SECTOR BOARDS.

• Of the 1,369 members of State boards appointed by the Partnership Cabinet, 694 are of Indian descent and 675 are held by non-Indians, a mere difference of 19.The percentages are 50.6 and 48.6 respectively. (The figures predate those recently made by Mr Howai’s recent reshuffle). Imbalance is however evident when we look at persons holding board chairs, but the pattern is not very skewed.

• Of the 154 chairmanships, 83, or 54 per cent, are held by Indians and 71, or 46 per cent, are held by non-Indians. Many had a different impression. But one needs to recall that the Partnership was a coalition, and board memberships would have had to be politically and ethnically diverse. It would be interesting to determine who controls the boards that are of critical status and prestige. Data on cabinet membership are also worth noting. What they show, unsurprisingly, is that PNM cabinets are far more racially skewed than NAR, UNC or Coalition cabinets.

• Fifty-four per cent of the Partnership Cabinet members were Indians and 46 per cent were non-Indians.

• When the data was looked at in terms of religion, we find that 56 per cent of the latter are Christian, 39 per cent are Hindu and five per cent were Muslim.

• What these figures indicate is that in terms of numbers, the Partnership is an Indian, but not a Hindu-dominated coalition. Many who are assumed to be Hindu are in fact Christian”