Dear Editor,
One of the most peculiar developments occurring in politics anywhere in the world is the ruling party’s attitude to many things in Guyana. If a person from another planet comes to Guyana and sees how the PPP operates, they would leave, not knowing that the budget and the government of the country are controlled and shaped by the PPP and to an obsessive extent. Let us identify two of these developments- crime and UG.
The PPP has held many pickets and demonstrations since it came to power in 1992 protesting the crime wave. These displays have been a source of amusement to a majority of persons in Guyana because it is the PPP that leads the government and it is the government that the average citizen in all countries depend on for their security. It was not the airlines that the American citizens turned to for protection after 9/11. It was the American government that put air marshals on the flight and insisted that the airlines put in security measures, one of which is that the cockpit doors must be locked during the flight .
If the PPP as a political party is protesting the crime wave, then what is the purpose of the weekly meetings of the leadership of the PPP? Isn’t it the PPP that has total power to decide if there is going to be a police presence or a police station in village A or village B. Isn’t is the PPP that has total power to decide if the pay of police recruits should be upped? Now last week, Mr. Hydar Ally in his weekly Mirror column continued with his usual swipes at me. He never forgets to pen the opinion that I criticize the government yet work at UG. This is what I mean by the PPP government being worse than Mr. Burnham. The very Hydar Ally worked for the Burnham government and was educated at UG when Burnham was President.
In his last week’s column, Mr. Ally reminded us of the PPP’s picket exercises against crime by what he wrote in that column. Mr. Ally informed us that it was Dr. Jagan that started UG and lamented the scarce resources and shortage of teaching personnel at UG. But who is in control of and who has the money that UG needs? The Government of Guyana which is comprised of the leadership of the PPP of which Mr. Ally is the secretary to the Executive Committee.
Reading Mr. Ally you would think that another organization makes policies for UG. Here is the reality that Mr. Ally hid from his readers. Since 1992, the Council of the University has been totally controlled by the PPP. President Jagdeo on three consecutive occasions intervened in the affairs at UG, scrapped the advertisement and search committee for a new Vice-Chancellor and appointed the same person. This was three times. I firmly believe in my heart that Mr. Burnham would not have been that foolish. Mr. Jagdeo knows absolutely nothing about politics.
This is what I believe Mr. Burnham would have done. He would have insisted on a candidate of his choice but he would not have done that shameless act on three occasions because he would have found it unnecessary. He would simply on the third round have found another PNC guy. Also Burnham was not that silly to make any official in the public sector feel that he is indispensable. Nothing that the PPP has done at UG has contained any vision yet Mr. Ally bemoans the all round lack of resources at UG. Mr. Ally has been a Council Member of the University for twelve years.
It is so irritating to read what these PPP leaders write. Last year a senior lecturer left UG at age 56 to take up employment at an institution that is so rich it can employ any high class professor it wants, the University of the West Indies. They took him because their retirement age goes to seventy, if that guy had stayed at UG, he would have had to retire at sixty. Yet Mr. Ally bemoans the shortage of staff as if another organization is the policy-making group at UG.
Don’t be surprised if you see a PPP picket against recklessness on the roads. As if there is another government in Guyana, other than the one the PPP controls. That other government will be asked by the PPP to bring in legislation to stop the lawlessness. How tragic that Guyana can be led by such short-sighted people. With the CSME now in place, little Barbados may not be able to take off the exodus from Guyana. They are already complaining over in Bridgetown.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
