Political interference in UG has been the norm

Dear Editor,

Perhaps thousands of letters, columns and news reports have been devoted to the University of Guyana (called UG) in the 53 years of its existence. Not to mention think tanks, conferences and other interventions offering advice on the way forward for the institution of learning. Inevitably, therefore, this letter runs the risk of repetitiveness where UG is concerned.

As the brainstorming session at the Marriott led by the University of Guyana’s energetic new Vice Chancellor Dr Ivelaw Griffith begins its deliberations on the way forward, the fraught history of our only university will again be the focus of attention.

According to a newspaper report the conference will be attended by approximately 100 persons, 48 of whom are overseas-based Guyanese and will include professionals, non-professionals, academics and businessmen. It is conceivably, by far the most independent initiative driven by the university for itself. There have been many such initiatives in the past to raise funds, but there is a discernible and refreshing openness and diligent preparation on the part of the new VC since he has acquired office. By extension, at least thus far, the Guyana government appears willing to let the VC and his team chart an independent course.

Professor Griffith recently told the press that he brought the visitors and stakeholders together to ask one simple question, ‘how can you help this university to raise funds?’   In 1994, one political party, the WPA,  had recommended that UG be freed to “generate revenues locally and overseas, to engage in commercial ventures such as consultancies, summer school for overseas students…and, in general to develop and exploit the considerable commercial potential of the research and development aspect of its work.”  Unquestionably financial assistance, and lots of it, is of extreme importance for improved wages and working conditions crucial for academic and non-academic staff, research and the infrastructure of UG.

But beyond the acquisition of funds I am sure the VC and his team will address the tenuous social and political fabric of this nation concurrent with the persistent problem of governmental interference in the academic institution. Professor Griffith is definitely alert to the problem as he has already fired a shot across the bow calling for a non-interference policy from the governing UG council – the accustomed bully pulpit and source of pressure from governments of the past.

The University of Guyana, since its foundation in 1963, had historically come under pressure from political forces in the society and its relatively independent academic council was by the early 1970s subject to insistent intervention from the state.

This dominion of the state over UG did not occur overnight. In the Chronicle Christmas Annual of 1967, an article musing on the University of Guyana’s first four years noted: “there have been bits of unpleasantness – such as the controversy over the non-renewal of the contract of sociology lecturer Stuart Bowes, frictions with the Headmaster of Queens College over use of the premises, disagreements between Dr. (Lancelot) Hogben and (Richard) Drayton, disputes between the Administration and the government over shortage of funds, and the row between the Student’s society and the Administration over graduate gowns. And in a small society such as Guyana, the disagreements have spilled over into the Press and made headlines”.

This assessment was made 49 years ago, a time, presumably, of hope in a country that had just achieved independence. Indeed, the article in question titled ‘UG: Forward with the Future’ actually captured the future (our present) in another amazingly predictive passage: “A major problem facing U.G. is one of finance. Library facilities are still very inadequate and essential equipment has had to be done without. At times there seems even danger that enough money will not be there to pay salaries to Staffmen.”

In the early period of PNC rule, as the late political scientist Tyrone Ferguson contends, there was a degree of independence at UG citing the case of Shirley Patterson (Field-Ridley) “who was herself strongly linked with the PNC and was to be appointed Minister of Education in 1968, could not get her contract renewed by the university two years earlier.”

Interference in UG’s role and position in society would nonetheless become the norm. Walter Rodney was denied a position in 1969 and from there the path was downward. Successive VCs and their staff were subjected to the whims of PNC and PPP officials. The political control of UG took many forms – among them the power to terminate contracts, starving UG of funds to bend the institution to their respective wills and other forms of ‘engagement’ thereby destroying academic independence.

Under the PPP regime the domination continued. Frederick Kissoon and others were modern victims of the government dominated UG Council.

Will the grouping at the Marriot confab with new leadership find a path for UG out of the maze of economic, social, cultural, infrastructural and other issues that have followed the institution from the inception? Can they set out a path to instil new independent and visionary energy into the University of Guyana? Can an institution termed ‘University of Guyana’ finally elude the intruding hands of the state and its vassals as extant up until the recent past? A good friend of mind even mused on the implications of the designation ‘University of Guyana’ and what it means in a small society where the ownership rights of the state are implicitly and explicitly bound up in the very title.

I am certain that Guyanese at home and abroad will fully support this current UG initiative and wish them all success. But we can also warn the academics and businessmen and women that the financial focus of their deliberations should be supplemented by what I would call a Guyana 101 syllabus, to wit an examination of the profundity of  daily perils and consuming nature of Guyanese civilization and its fragile civil, political and social fabric. Guyana and its institutions have over time succeeded in breaking even the most visionary and practical expeditions of remedy in almost all areas of national life.

The UG gathering can begin their exercise by flouting tradition and deferring to home-grown wisdom through careful reading and reflection on the untiring observations and admonitions of local critics and onlookers in the press including Freddy Kissoon, GHK Lall, Pastor Wendell Jeffrey, Allan Fenty, EB John, Frank Fyffe and others on the nature of everyday Guyana, its forms, and the way it consumes, like flesh-eating bacteria, any noble endeavour. Please don’t read this as nagging negativism. It is pessimistic optimism.

Yours faithfully,

Nigel Westmaas