The gov’t has failed UG over the last 17 years

Dear Editor,

I refer to the news item: “UG needs academic and admin overall – Vice Chancellor; says crumbling infrastructure to be addressed (SN June 20, 09).” Every Guyanese who reads that article should have asked his/herself what the PPP Govern-ment has been doing with seventeen years of power. The reference to the falling physical plant of UG comes at a time when the Georgetown sewerage system is in dire straits. Worst, the GPL is not far behind. Then there is the living nightmare of potable water supply.

One of the things the private newspapers and commentators have failed to keep an eye on is the sickening absence of qualified teachers in most of the top secondary schools. At Queen’s College, the situation is extremely depressing. Against this background, this very government sponsored Carifesta. The second richest Caricom state, The Bahamas (though it is not a CSME signatory) has declined to hold the next Carifesta out of concern about spending. We will have the next ICC 20/20 cricket tournament here in 2011. The wealthiest Caricom nations have refused to sponsor it with the exception of Barbados.

There is nothing unusual about the failure of this Government. There were many like it. But they got voted out. What is horrible about Guyana is how can decent, sensible human beings with nowhere to go except in their own country; with children whose future lie in attending UG, go out and vote for a political party that for seventeen years has not moved Guyana forward but has taken it way back in time. I get complaints from students all the time about UG and I would say to them asked your parents who they voted for. The sociological explanation as to why East Indians ballot for the PPP is because they are afraid of the “big, bad wolf” the PNC. That can no longer hold water. The PNC has been out of power for seventeen years. There are other parties that have entered the terrain

The ongoing trauma that East Indians have endured with the PPP has damaged their psyche in ways that they do not understand or are aware of. Indians have faced more humiliation around the globe than any other ethnic Guyanese group. They vote for the PPP with huge expectations. The PPP just cannot get it right. So what the Indians do? They look for Western visas or illegal residence in other countries. If you read what a number of Barbadian commentators say and some of the press, the focus is on the Indians from Guyana.

Most Bajans will tell you that the Indians support the PPP and there are African rights activists in Barbados that pick up on that and get into an anti-immigrant campaign. Indians have to make the break with the PPP. Unless they do so, they will not be a university to send their children to. Indians must ask themselves where the PPP Government was when the University’s physical structure was falling. Most importantly, where the money is going to come from to resuscitate the institution? You are talking about nothing less than billions and billions of dollars

Just to outfit the laboratories will take a large sum. The Government asked the Carib-bean Development Bank for G$600M for the labs which was turned down, and that was quite a modest figure requested. The library with a new building to house the collections will take another large amount. Then to replace the physical plant will entail another financial enormity. I haven’t mentioned competitive salaries. If the PPP loses the 2011 election, UG can only survive if it is integrated within the UWI structure. Of course that depends on UWI’s compliance. It is important to note that student intake is tapering off at UG. It has been like this the past two years. When we count up the number of students at UG, we never factor into the equation how many more we would have had if UG hadn’t been in this poor state.

When I attended a parent/ teacher association meeting of School of the Nations summoned to discuss the school switchover from CXC to Cambridge GCE (Dr. Roger Luncheon and I voted against the proposal; it was not a good idea). The sentiments in that meeting were anti-UG. At Marian Academy and School of the Nations where my daughter attended, nine out of ten parents I talked to had no intention of sending their children to UG. Fortunately, they could afford the expenses that decision entitled. I close by advocating to the Indian people of Guyana – give another political party a chance to save your country (if you think it is your country)

Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon