THE resignation of Roy Martin from the Blackburn with Darwen Racial Equality Council after 35 years' service to the cause of racial justice and harmony is not only sad, it is also disturbingly revealing.

For, when an officer of Mr Martin's stature and acknowledged integrity - he is a former magistrate and was, until his retirement, the Commission for Racial Equality's senior complaints officer for the whole of Northern England and Scotland - packs in out of despair and frustration, it is a manifest sign that something is wrong and rotten.

We caught sight of the dubious way in which the REC's affairs were conducted only last month - when, in outright breach of the rules, its then chairman, Blackburn councillor Mohammed Khan, put in for and was offered a £22,000 a year job with the organisation.

Mr Martin was charged with the investigation of that scandal.

But its murk has not been dispelled - either by the subsequent resignations of the errant Coun Khan or that of his Labour Party colleague, Coun Dave Hollings, who sat on the panel which illicitly offered him the job, from their respective council roles as chairman and vice chairman of housing.

Indeed, much murk still prevails in the form of the continuing failure of the chairman of the interview panel, Conservative councillor Edna Arnold, to explain her role in this fishy business.

But if the REC stank before of malpractice, it stinks to high heaven now, with Mr Martin's departure and his accusations in his letter of resignation to new chairman Junaid Quereshi of "wheeling and dealing" for votes among the various groups associated with the organisation in the elections to its executive at the recent annual meeting.

And we find Mr Martin withdrawing - in evident indignation - from the disciplinary panel set up to question the REC's director, Abdul Hamid Chowdry, about the Khan affair.

For, he claims, Mr Chowdry had subsequently issued explicit instructions for the minutes of the executive's meeting not be circulated.

In short, Mr Martin's complaints amount to a protest at the pulling of strings that goes on within the REC for the benefit of those pulling them.

Allegedly in Coun Khan's case it was to get a well-paid job.

In the case of the recent elections it would seem it was to get seats on the executive - to be in a position to pull strings, perhaps?

And in the case of Mr Chowdry the aim would appear to be to evade accountability.

Both Mr Quereshi as chairman and Mr Chowdry are tainted by these accusations.

They must, for the sake of the integrity of themselves and the REC, come out and openly explain themselves to the community and to its satisfaction.

If they cannot or will not, they should resign.

But, come what may, the national Commission for Racial Equality should come in and investigate the Blackburn with Darwen REC which stinks, at present, of being run as the private fief of certain individuals with the interests of the community and racial justice and equality being a somewhat secondary consideration.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.