Could someone shed some light on the goings on with the first Bishop ever to be appointed to a Ministerial position in Guyana! We know that he had been given the job of Junior Minister of Finance after his eye-catching exertions at the hustings but what exactly are Junior Minister Juan’s duties? Word is that that Dr. Ashni is toying with the idea of having his back up man head the Finance Ministry’s team to meet with the folks from APNU and the AFC to have a gaff about the 2012 budget. That might not be too bad an idea since he might be just the man to do the biblical loaves and the fishes miracle to stretch the money so that it finds its way into all the different corners. But then again no one knows for certain whether Juan still carries the title of Bishop and whether he continues to put in time at the pulpit on Sundays.
Whatever his ecclesiastical pursuits it is high time that he is given a public speech to make, or a ribbon to cut or a rural community centre to declare open or a baby to kiss for the cameras………..or some such thing. With all the perks and privileges accruing to a Minister we cannot afford the luxury of having Juan doing no more than warming a chair at the Ministry of Finance. OK, he might be doing some back room work on government contracts or some such thing but aren’t Ministers supposed to be doing some up front work too……..like telling the people what the government has in store for them. The last thing we need is to have rumours circulating that Juan is a sort of ‘stand by’ minister, an emergency fieldsman who serves refreshments during the breaks in the game and hopes and prays that a fielder sprains an ankle so that he can get a ‘look in.’ Up until now there is no other reasonable conclusion that we can come to. Here’s an idea! Perhaps some kind journalist can call him up and interview him on some issue along the lines of what it takes to serve God and Country at the same time. Every Minister deserves his day in the media and it is time that Juan is given his day.
Or is that that they are holding Juan back for Parliament? Now there’s an idea! Who knows whether Juan might be able to find a way of topping up the PPP/C’s seats in the National Assembly. After all, if he could have tried to summon divine intervention during the elections campaign, who knows whether he might not come up with some other miracle to make that extra seat on the opposition side disappear.
There are, perhaps, some tasks that might suit the Bishop’s particular talents. He might be assigned, for example, to oversee the allocation of state contracts to ensure ethnic balance given his experience at the ERC. Or he could be put in charge of ensuring that government ministries properly account for revenue stamps, a pursuit with which he would have become familiar as Chairman of the Board of the Post Office. Another idea might be to have the Bishop lead the nation in prayer at every official function and at the weddings, christenings and funerals of top officials and their families.
But whatever happens it would really be a shame to waste good ministerial material by keeping the Bishop idle. The man is reported to be holding several drafts of different speeches to fit whatever occasion is eventually assigned him and some of those speeches are reportedly going “off the boil” and already in need of freshening up. Here’s an idea! President Ramotar could unleash Juan on us for the Mashramani celebrations. He could be put in charge of praying for good weather on Mash Day and after the people have mashed to their hearts’ content he could then be further assigned to conjure up some miracle to ensure that the chicken boxes, soda cans are beer bottles disappear overnight so that on May 24 we can wake up to a reasonably clean city.
