Dear Editor,
This country has produced so many farcical expressions of human nature among its political actors that there isn’t anything left to surprise citizens who follow the political and contemporary history of Guyana. I refer to the letter by Dr Henry Jeffrey, “We need to be more practical about making a ‘shared vision’ a reality,” SN, December 3. In that correspondence, Dr Jeffrey outlines a framework for inclusive and workable democracy and included protection of the University of Guyana from political interference. Let us use his own words, “The University of Guyana will be insulated from political interference.”
As I wrote above, nothing should shock one when politicians open their mouths. Dr Jeffrey as Minister of Education played no small part in exposing the university to political interference. Dr Jeffrey has only discovered his insulation tape after leaving the corridors of power in which he walked for 17 years with his PPP colleagues. I sit as a member of the policy-making body at UG, the Council of the University and under Dr Jeffrey as Minister of Education and President Jagdeo, the university became an institution whose autonomy was assaulted even more tempestuously than under both Burnham and Hoyte.
Dr Jeffrey and President Jagdeo imposed administrators on the university that even their PPP colleagues were raging mad about. This is because those PPP dissenters had the university at heart. Dr Nanda Gopaul and Mrs Indra Chandarpal stand out. They were never happy with the impositions because they knew those particular personnel were not the right people to lead the university. Dr Jeffrey and the President’s concerns were essentially dictated by realpolitik. One incident was particularly egregious. The council’s patience was exhausted with incompetence and it voted to search for a Vice-Chancellor by an application process and appointed Dr Mark Kirton to act in the interim. I think we all know what happened. Sadly, Dr Kirton migrated and took up a UWI position.
Dr Jeffrey has been writing letters containing suggestions for a democratic pathway and pointing out the pitfalls of past governments, including the one he served for almost seventeen years. One particular missive of his should be noted. He wrote about the natural continuation of Corbin as leader given the oligarchic nature of the two major political parties in Guyana. Even a schoolchild would know that the PPP has been more tightly authoritarian in its structure than the PNC with the two Jagans overlooking even the inconsequential details. Dr Jeffrey may not remember that a few months ago with regard to his controversy with the President over his continuation as the Minister of International Trade, GINA reported that he was engaging in discussion with the Office of the President about shifting his position. In other words, Dr Jeffrey was quite happy to continue to serve an oligarchic government in his country. He didn’t succeed and now we see frequent letters in which Dr Jeffrey lectures us on how to achieve inclusive governance.
Finally, let me remind readers of the exchange in this very newspaper that Dr Daniel Kumar and I had with Dr Jeffrey as Minister of Education. A child that lived right next door to West Ruimveldt Primary was assigned a school far away. We asked the Minister to see the unfairness of this.
He rejected our request. We went to the press. He replied saying that school placement is a random process. If Mr Jagdeo was a democratic President, and if the Guyana government was a decent one, then Dr Jeffrey should have been disciplined for making that shocking statement. We took him up with the Ombudsman and never heard anything after.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
