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Deodat Dulalchan, the man who has made headlines over the past several months after he was nominated for the job of Commissioner of Police, says although Parliament has rejected his nomination he remains “committed” to the oath he took 38 years ago as an officer “to protect and serve” and to make Trinidad and Tobago a “safer place.” However, he admitted yesterday he will not put himself through the process again.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian yesterday hours after the Parliament vote, Dulalchan said he still had “trust and confidence in the institutions of the land.”
July will make it 38 years since he has been in the service and Dulalchan said, “I am not going to take on no unnecessary headache at this time. That is why I had a legal team advising me as to the way forward.”
It was just after midnight Wednesday that the Parliament rejected the Police Service Commission’s nomination of Dulalchan as the country’s top cop. Saying he knew the issue had to be decided by the Parliament, he said, “The Parliament has made a decision what can I say.”
On Tuesday, Dulalchan, through his attorneys, wrote to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley asking him to approve his nomination as CoP. But on Wednesday, the Parliament, having heard from the members of the Special Select Committee chaired by Minister in the Office of the Attorney General Fitzgerald Hinds, deemed the procedure used by the PSC as “unsound, unsafe, unsatisfactory and illogical.”
Dulalchan said he is now “just trying to get it a bit clearer as to what may happen now going forward.” But he said despite the outcome, “I remain committed to work hand in hand seriously and diligently with the executive to see how we can meet our mandate to make Trinidad and Tobago a place where all of us and our children and grandchildren can live much more safer.”
While the United National Congress and Pundit Satyanand Maharaj brought the issue of race into the Government’s rejection of the nomination, Rowley made it clear on Wednesday night that neither race nor religion were factors in the decision and Dulalchan himself did not want to believe it was a factor.
“I see everything objectively and I see good in every human being and I don’t go along that line at all on whether I not being given the nod had anything to do with that. I don’t want to comment. I don’t want to get there. I don’t want to think about that,” Dulalchan said.
Asked whether he felt he had been treated unfairly, he admitted it had been a “difficult time” for him because “when my name popped up a lot of things start to appear, persons were having their views publicly without being informed.”
While noting things had “somewhat simmered down,” Dulalchan said, “In life, you don’t get everything you want. In life, everything is not fair. But that’s life. There are certain things you have no control over, you just can’t bother with it you know.”
However, he said he will definitely not apply for the CoP job again.
“No, no, definitely not. I don’t think I will go through that situation again,” Dulalchan said.
In fact, he reiterated he had never applied for the post but was asked as part of the interview.
Asked if he would apply for deputy commissioner if the opportunity arises, he said, “Depending on what time it comes around I will have to do my own personal assessment and so on and see if at that point it makes sense.”
Dulalchan said he would be “dishonest” if he did not admit that the whole issue of the length of time it’s taking to appoint a CoP was affecting morale in the police service.
“It is something that we all wish for. Appointment of a substantive commissioner will indeed impact on morale in a positive way.”
He described his relationship with acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams as excellent.
“As an executive, we are very much cohesive, in fact, I report to Commissioner Williams every morning,” he said.
Police Social and Welfare Association president Inspector Michael Seales meanwhile offered no comment on the decision. In fact, he would only say “everything is in God’s hands.”
He admitted, however, that the morale of the service has been affected since the start of the selection process because of the “rumours and speculation arising out of the conduct of the selection process.”
Seales said officers “look forward and anticipate that whosoever is the person elected will be a person that gives them that type of motivation and the ability to perform to that high standard.” SEE Page A11