Dear Editor,
I see the advice of F Hamley Case in his SN letter of December 5 as interesting challenges for incumbents in high public offices. However, I do not understand his claim that his father, Mr FWE (Fred) Case as Director of Education experienced uneasy relationships with Mr Balram Singh Rai, the 1959-1961 PPP Minister of Education.
Mr FWE Case was a teacher and Principal of the Teachers Training College in the civil service. His career in the teaching service and at the Teachers Training College was punctuated with outstanding stewardship. This identified him as the logical choice for appointment as the first Guyanese Director of Education after GHR Clough’s tenure as Director of Education ended in 1959. Mr Clough was a Jamaican and probably an overseas appointee of the British Colonial Office in London, England.
Mr Balram Singh Rai was Minister of Community Development and Education from 1959 to 1961. FWE Case, MA was appointed as Director Education in 1959, an appointment which by conventional practice would have been made by the governor on the recommendation of Mr Rai who would have acted on the basis of a stated policy of appointing qualified Guyanese to all the established offices in the British Guiana civil service. Mr Rai had helped to shape this policy when he was a civil servant in the Post Office Department and a militant trade unionist in the British Guiana Civil Service Association (BGCSA) of which he was the Senior Vice President in the 1940s.
Mr Case was the chief adviser in education administration to Minister Balram Singh Rai when the Minister was able to terminate management control of 51 schools that were under Christian denominational control. As a result, non-Christian Hindus and Muslims were able to access the teaching service without having to convert to Christianity, and teachers of the Christian faith were able to transfer and to receive promotion in schools from which they were historically excluded since denominational control of schools was first established.
There were changes in the designation of directors as a result of proposed constitutional and administrative amendments in policies and practices after the March 1960 British Guiana Constitutional Conference in London, England where agreement was secured for an internal self-governing constitution for the colony after a general election in 1961. A direct result of the new policies was the re-designation of all the offices (except two) of directors in the civil service. The office of Director of Education was, therefore, re-designated as Chief Education Officer.
The two exceptions were Director of Civil Aviation (DCA) which remained unchanged in keeping with conventions of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Director of Posts & Telecommunications which was separated and designated Post Master General and Chief Telecommunications Engineer.
Mr Rai was appointed Minister of Home Affairs after the August 1961 General Election. However, he reverted to the status of an independent member of parliament after his appointment as Minister of Home Affairs was revoked in June 1962. He was not a minister of government in 1963 as suggested by Hamley Case.
Cedric Vernon Nunes was appointed Minister of Education and Social Develop-ment in 1961 and remained as such until December 1964. Mr Case was his Chief Education Officer and Evan Drayton was his Permanent Secretary. As the principal adviser on education to Mr Nunes, Mr Case would have helped in establishing the University of Guyana (UG) under the ministerial leadership of Mr Nunes.
Mr Case was also one of the team of leading academic minds who helped to stipulate the specifications for academic personnel and to select the first batch of students for the new university.
Dr Harold Drayton was another leading academic mind in the team. Mr Case was also a member of the Board of Governors when UG was opened on October 1, 1963.
Perhaps, influenced by filial piety and devotion, Hamley Case perceived his father as a victim of what he claimed to be the “idiosyncratic” attitudes of Minister Balram Singh Rai. This was a very unkind perception when in fact there were no reported differences between Mr Case and the Minister. However, it would be foolish of me to think that there were no moments of discomfort between Mr Rai and Mr Case. Differences in views and opinions are routinely shared between every senior executive level public (civil) servant and his or her minister on policy or management matters.
I wish to recommend to Hamley Case that he should read Against the Grain: Balram Singh Rai and the Politics of Guyana. Mr. Case could secure information on the dynamics of government and governance when Mr Rai was a community activist, civil servant, trade unionist, lawyer, politician, parliamentarian and government minister. The book is available at Austins Book Services on Church Street, Georgetown.
Yours faithfully,
Baytoram Ramharack
