Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Michael Parris’s letter captioned “Many of Dr Jagan’s problems were caused by his own actions and attitudes” (07.12.19) In that letter Parris wrote: “When Dr Jagan appointed a history teacher from Queen’s College, as his Permanent Secretary, above a host of persons far senior to him, questions were asked of him by journalists”. The tone of that reference to that History Master is disparaging but Mr Parris may not be aware of the Queen’s College of those days and the levels of distinction of both Masters and boys of that renowned school.
The History Master referred to was Mr H.R. Persaud who was a fine scholar and brilliant man. Persaud had taught many of the more brilliant persons in the Public Service as well as many of the finest intellects Guyana had produced. No one doubted Persaud’s capabilities and in any case the status of Q.C. Senior Masters was just below that of a Permanent Secretary and so a Senior Q.C. Master moving into the administrative side of the Civil Service did not bypass anyone since his status would have been above a Principal Assistant Secretary.
I may mention that Q.C. Masters of that era went forth and became very distinguished persons in many parts of the world. Those who stayed here were people like R.E. Jackson, Foreign Minister; R.J. Moore, Diplomat and Ambassador; R. Insanally, Foreign Minister, Pat Dial, Historian, Cultural Promoter and Permanent Secretary, Richard Allsopp, International Professor and authority on Linguistics; Lynette Dolphin, Guyana and Caribbean cultural leader; Joshua Ramsammy, university Pro-chancellor etc. And the boys whom they taught in that era are far too numerous to mention since they held the highest posts in whatever field they were, both in the Caribbean and worldwide.
Mr Persaud, as a very able man, was personally acceptable to Civil Service colleagues at the time and his status as Senior Master at Q.C. did not really override anyone in the hierarchy. And no one could blame Burnham and Jagan for choosing Permanent Secretaries whom they thought could do their work and deliver.
Unfortunately, at the time of Persaud’s appointment, Cold War politics was raging in Guyana, racialism was relentlessly promoted and stirred up, and every action and every thing was being politicized. And racialism and politics blinded people to merit and capabilities. Mr Parris’s letter reflects this attitude of the 1960s.
Yours faithfully,
J.J. Forde
