Community-minded Tomar Dwhaj is a ‘Special Person’

Mar 15, 2015 News

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 “From a little boy, I always wanted to be a law enforcement officer—I got that blood in me.”

By Leon Suseran
Police work always fascinated Tomar Dwhaj from a very tender age. He says he is ‘built’ for such work,

since he describes himself as “a person who believes in seeing that fellow citizens and their property are protected, and a very brave individual who is never afraid of defending himself at the scene of a crime”.
This dedicated father of ten – Haiwatie, Bisham, Dewan, Maureen, Balwant, Henant, Parmeshwar, Camille, Roopan and Govinda  – has given most of his life to the service of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), not as a uniformed cop, but as what we would refer to as a ‘village police.’
But perhaps Dwhaj has won more awards and commendations from the GPF than a lot of uniformed ranks. He was instrumental in fighting crime during the days of the notorious ‘kick-down-door-bandits’ in the 1980’s and recalled how “exciting a time it was” for him, as he led other members of the vigilante group, arresting criminals and ensuring they were dealt with condignly by the law.
Over the years, he was influential in the formation of one of Berbice’s most outstanding Community Policing Groups (CPGs), at Palmyra, 41 years ago. The group copped several awards from past Police Commissioners.
SELFLESS
Tomar Dwhaj was selfless. He never attained a high school education, because he wanted to help earn money to send one of his brothers to medical school in India, so he toiled in his father’s farm. He also did the back-breaking work of cutting cane from his teenage years.
He grew up in a very poor family; born to Brehaspat and housewife, Madodarie at

Palmyra, East Canje. His father, he noted, served 30 years as a Councillor at the Sheet Anchor NDC, and also taught Hindi to Palmyrians at a makeshift school.
He recalled that there were bushes, not large expanses of sugar plantations opposite his home like those that exist today. After the sugar company bought the lands, the area was transformed to cane-farming.
Dwhaj spent his childhood days tending to cattle and farm in East and West Canje. He attended the Sheet Anchor Anglican School but did not continue his education at the secondary level, for reasons mentioned earlier. At 14, he became a cane-cutter. He loved the work, even though he had to leave home at two in the morning sometimes, since there were no trucks to transport workers to the fields in those days.
He worked for as much as $20 per week, which was “lots of money back then”. During that period he married, at the age of 17, after visiting his 16-year-old sweetheart, at her father’s home at Wash Clothes, Mahaicony.
“I went and see the girl, and (I) accepted the offer,” he stated.
His wife, he said would get up at 11 o’ clock in the night and cook, so that he could leave early. “We walked to the canals— I left home with my saucepan…”
He also continued to work in his father’s rice field.
Dwhaj says he had to leave the cane-cutting work after the sugar company made qualifications mandatory for cane-cutting. He took up carpentry and became very skillful in that area, under

the tutelage of Number Two Village carpenter, Ruben Jahoor. Dwhaj earned $2 per week. He later attained his Certificate in Woodworking.
He recalled working with some of the very prominent citizens in New Amsterdam and was also thrilled to be involved in the construction of the auditorium of the Berbice High School, a wharf adjacent to the Canje River Bridge, and the Demerara Distillers Limited wharf at Stanleytown.
In 1960, Dwhaj ran for election in the local government elections and served as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Sheet Anchor/Cumberland NDC until 1970. He was a founder-member of the Reliance Crematorium in East Canje in 1976. He currently serves as Chairman of that facility. In the 1980’s, he was also a founder-member of the Highbury Immigration Site, the place where the first batch of Indians arrived in British Guiana.
In 1974, Dwhaj formed Berbice’s first Vigilante Group at Palmyra under the then

Commissioner of Police, Mr. Henry Fraser. He served as Chairman and Vice-chairman on numerous occasions. He was awarded a vehicle, “and from then, I started to work very hard with the police.”
‘I COULD HAVE MADE A GOOD SOLDIER”
“From a little boy, I always wanted to be a law enforcement officer—I got that blood in me. I had that in my intentions—and I maintained my dignity and I started to work with the police.”
Dwhaj was appointed Rural Constable by Commissioner Lloyd Barker in 1980, and later elevated to Corporal and then Sergeant. He related some of his experiences as a vigilante police in those days.
“I shot one bandit at Seawell, who kicked down doors—and there is where I got my ‘Sergeant. I was not nervous to use the gun whenever I had to. I am not afraid to kill a man who is willing to do anything to harm others—I could have made a good soldier,” he boasted.
He noted that being a family man, and also dedicated to farming, he was contented in just being a rural police officer, and never thought about becoming a fully uniformed officer. “I love farming—it is money coming in every day,” he noted.
The force started to see the hard work he was doing in his Division and the

commendations and awards started pouring in. He also received several more vehicles from past Commissioners including Winston Felix, and from Commander Sibidhar Kassim.
At nights, he and the other men, sometimes up to 12 in number, patrolled with their guns, during the infamous crime wave of that time in Guyana. Their patrols went beyond the borders of Palmyra, even Canje; they patrolled as far as New Forest, Sisters, and Springlands, Corriverton.
He noted that banditry was running rampant and was unfortunately encouraged by the fact that Royal Bank of Canada had closed its operations, forcing many citizens to hoard large sums of monies in their homes. Dwhaj recalled that he personally made an intervention, during a visit to then President Desmond Hoyte, “and I told him the Co-op Bank (Guyana National Cooperative Bank or GNCB as it was referred to) was not taking the people’s monies, so the bandits are there.”
He said President Hoyte went and spoke to the GNCB Area Manager, and then the bank started to allow persons to save there.

“I remembered one night, a lady at Williamsburg called me and said thieves were breaking into her home, and before the cops met there, I arrived.”
Yes, he arrived faster from Palmyra than the cops did in the Corentyne, sparking a thorough investigation into the incident as to how this could have occurred. Such was his dedication to law and order.
‘I worked very hard in the police force; today, I most likely would have been (a) Superintendent.”
At one point, he also became Chairman of all of the CPGs in Berbice, and held several workshops and seminars with those officers.
Over the years, Dwhaj has also been actively involved in the security of Ballot Boxes at various Polling Stations during General and Regional Elections, “and I perform any other special duties, because I am part of the Auxiliary.”
Now that he’s 81 years old, he does not really go out to patrol in the night, but insists he would readily do so if the need arises.
“COURAGE IS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT”
“I love police work, but the best days I ever had was when Detective Sharma was a CID officer, because he would usually come out at nights with us and hunt bandits at Bush Lot, Corentyne—all over we used to be in the back-dam, hunting cattle rustlers,” he added. He admits that it was very tough work and also physically demanding, since many a night they walked home, due to breakdown of their vehicles in the unforgiving terrain.
He is thankful that he was never injured nor attacked by bandits, throughout the years.
“Courage is an essential element in every good police officer. And you must not be corrupted…always handle a situation with discretion. Police officers should not harass people…even the criminals sometimes. You have to be nice to the criminals to get information out of them,” he stated.
“You cannot be harsh with people; and lock them up, and beat them up!” he said. He added that police officers can use alternative measures to get information and solve crimes.
“It (abuse of suspects by police officers) upsets me a lot, but all in all we still have some great police officers,” he said. “There is one officer in particular in Berbice I can say I am extremely proud of… Sergeant Michael Newland. “That is one man I can always talk (good) about—I never found him corrupt—he deals with situations very calmly. That is someone to look up to in the profession.”
“Superintendent Jairam Ramlakahan was also a very good man…I worked with him, also Mr. Rishi Das.”
“I think the police officers of today should use discretion with people; be nice and talk nice to people—interact with them in a civil manner and they will assist you.
“More young men should join the Guyana Police Force. The Training Colleges would bring out the best in their character. They should enroll as early as possible.”
After 41 years spent doing work in the GPF, Mr. Dwhaj particularly remembers receiving a monetary reward for “prompt and intelligent action which led to the arrest of a felon and recovery of stolen property.”
He also received Commendation and an Award from the Force in 1986, for displaying outstanding public-spiritedness in contributing to the maintenance of law and order; and there was Commendation and an Award to the Palmyra CPG in 2005; a Certificate of Achievement for Outstanding Performance in the Execution of Warrants in Central Police Station in 2010; Commendation from Commissioner, for public-spiritedness in 2006; and Commendations for the Palmyra CPG in 1986, 1989, 1993, 2007 and 2009.
Mr. Dwhaj can certainly say that his contributions have been exemplary and duly recognised.

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