10
INTERVIEWS VIEWS
Long and winding
road to equality
TO HELP COMMUNITIES NAVIGATE THE MAZE OF
PROBLEMS THROWN UP BY RACISM, PROFESSOR
DR ANEEZ ISMAIL TELLS KK TAN MORE OF HIS
CAMPAIGN FOR RACIAL EQUALITY AND JUSTICE IN
BRITAIN OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS.
MY column on Jan 29 drew a huge response from
readers who were struck by what Professor Dr
Aneez Ismail had to say. As a result theSun editors
requested that I do a Q & A with Dr Aneez on his
fight for racial equality and justice in Britain. This is
because understanding race relations in the home-
land of our former colonial masters, whose policies
and laws greatly influenced our country’s policies
and politics, may help us to understand better the
complexities of our own race relations and how
it can be improved. The previous column can be
viewed at www.sun2surf.com (Extra, Views).
You were originally from Uganda. How did you
land in Britain?
My grandparents had left India to settle in Uganda
and my parents were born there. They knew no
other place as home. They had worked there,
invested their earnings there and saw themselves
as Ugandans.
Then in 1972, my family was expelled by Idi
Amin and we became refugees. I was 13 years old
at the time. We were given two months to leave
and were allowed to take two suitcases each. It was
a shock for all of us because we were Uganda-born
citizens.
I think what was more shocking was that the
reason for our expulsion was purely racist. Anyone
who was Asian, irrespective of whether he or she
was Muslim or not (Idi Amin was a Muslim), was
told to leave. The reason given was that many of
the Asians were British citizens. But that was the
legacy of British colonial rule. When Uganda got
independence, people were given the choice of
Beyond
Race
A new perspective
Professor Dr Aneez
Ismail is associate
vice-president
for equality and
diversity at the
University of
Manchester
being either Ugandan or British citizens. Uganda
was part of the Commonwealth which was, at
that time, a very active institution and no one
thought twice about whether being British or
Ugandan mattered. So it was a real shock for us
that we were no longer considered citizens of
the country we were born in and which we had
spent all our lives in.
Paradoxically, this was my first experience
of racism because it was clear that it was simply
the colour of our skin that determined whether
we were allowed to stay in Uganda or not. My
family had been very successful in Uganda. We
had houses, property, factories and all that had
to be left behind.
Did you experience racism in Britain?
When I first arrived in 1968 to study, there were
very few ethnic minorities. There were probably
only one or two other foreign students at my
school. I remember being called names, some-
times being bullied but it was at a fairly low level
and I coped with it.
As I grew older, I became aware of some
outright racist and fascist organisations which
went around attacking Asians and West Indians.
I remember having to be very careful, like not
going into certain areas of town, especially at
night, and just being generally aware.
But I should also point out that when we
first came to Britain as refugees, people were
also very kind and that struck me. We had left
Uganda penniless and yet Britain allowed us in
to start our lives again. I shall always be indebted
to the British people for that.
How did you first get involved in race and
discrimination issues?
I went to Sheffield University in 1979 as a medi-
cal student. I reckoned I was quite privileged
because at that time, probably 4% or 5% of the
students in my medical school intake were from
ethnic minorities. Individually we didn’t feel any
specific racism but I soon became aware from
some of the overseas students that there were
real issues.
One thing that shocked me was that over-
night the then Labour government had decided
to double overseas student fees. I felt this was
inherently unfair. Many overseas students had
come to Britain expecting to pay a set level of
fees. Suddenly they were told in the middle
of their studies that they would have to pay
substantially more. I felt that this was morally
wrong and I began to help overseas students
to fight the fee increases. It was through this
campaign that I became aware of a certain level
of racism against overseas students from lectur-
ers and also from many students.
However, to be fair to the British students,
once the issue was explained to them and the
reasons why we were against the fee increases,
the majority supported what we were doing.
What other activities were you involved in as
an undergraduate?
As a medical student, I became aware of the
many wider problems in society. I visited people
in their homes and realised how much poverty
there was and also the realisation that a lot of
ill-health was related to poverty. I fought against
cuts in public services especially to the health
service because I realised what an important
safety net this was for poor people. It was impor-
tant that this basic right to health for common
people was preserved. The early 1980s were a
period of huge unemployment in Britain and I
worked with organisations which tried to help
jobless people.
theSun | THURSDAY FEBRUARY 26 2009
I became more involved in the wider anti-
racist struggle because it became clear that
it was not just overseas students who were
affected by racism but ethnic minorities. By that
time I considered myself British, I had British
citizenship and I was very aware that in areas
such as housing, education, access to employ-
ment, ethnic minorities were disadvantaged in
all these areas. So I began to fight for the rights
of ethnic minorities in the UK.
As a non-white person, how did you manage
to get elected president of the predominantly
white Medical Practitioners Union between
1997 and 2003?
Partly because of my skills as a public speaker
and – what I realise now – a natural talent for
organising, I achieved a lot of prominence in
many of the campaigns that I was involved in.
I realised I was a good public speaker because
my colleagues always pushed me forward to
negotiate on their behalf, or to speak to the press
and to make speeches.
While still a medical student, I also became
involved in campaigns against the drug compa-
nies who were charging huge amounts of money
for drugs in developing countries and I began to
take an interest in understanding why so many
countries in the world were poor. When I quali-
fied, I remained active in the Medical Practition-
ers Union, a trade union of doctors which was
very active in the campaign to fight for equality
and justice within the National Health Service
(NHS) and although by the 1980s and 90s, it
became a smaller organisation, it always
attracted a group of doctors who were more
interested in social justice than just professional
issues. It was through this work that I became a
member of the union and its president for nearly
five years. Because of the above, the fact that I
was an ethnic minority became irrelevant.
Still, you did much to fight against racial
discrimination in the medical profession
which resulted in significant changes in
the recruitment, selection and monitoring
processes in the profession. For that you were
even recognised internationally and were
awarded a Harkness Fellowship in 1997 and
you spent a year as a Visiting Professor at
Harvard Medical School.
One of the early campaigns that I was involved in
was exposing the extent of racial discrimination
in the medical profession. It may surprise most
people that overseas qualified doctors represent
nearly 40% of all doctors in the NHS. The reasons
for this are simple. When the NHS was created, it
became apparent to the government that it could
never meet the demand for doctors and nurses
from within Britain. There were just not enough
medical schools and it was extremely expensive
to train their own doctors. So they looked at former
Commonwealth countries, particularly India and
Pakistan, to provide the medical workforce that
was needed. This was a win-win situation for
the British Government. The overseas countries
which had invested huge amounts in training
doctors lost them to countries like Britain and
the United States which had a ready market for
their skills. It was this process that resulted in
nearly 40% of doctors in the British NHS being
from overseas.
However, what struck me when I qualified
was that these doctors were really considered
as second-class citizens. I myself had qualified in
Britain but I also found this to be the case in rela-
tion to my own circumstances. I had to apply for
many more jobs than my British colleagues and
I also observed that there were very few senior