He spent more than 30 years in the Public Service, both at home and abroad before retiring in 1991, and is the only person from Trinidad and Tobago to have been Ambassador to Washington (the country's top diplomatic post) and to the Organization of American States, and Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister and Head of the Public Service.

He has been interim Executive Director of the Institute of Business at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, and is now a company director and occasional consultant and media commentator.

Uniquely among Caribbean writers, Dumas looks at the region and the world as diplomat, public servant and citizen. He ranges over a wide spectrum of crucial contemporary issues such as public sector reform, illegal drug use and the possible impact of the World Trade Organization. He sheds new light on regional affairs such as the 1983 events in Grenada. His views, often acerbic, always penetrating, are certain to stimulate thought.