Dear Editor,
This letter is prompted by my unhappiness and concern at the very unbalanced and derogatory assessments made of Navin Chandarpal and Carl Greenidge by some commentators in recent weeks and by my perceived need for a more moderate and constructive tone to public debates in Guyana.
While being abroad during the period in which both Navin and Carl were active in Guyana, my international work led to close involvement with both men in particular aspects of their work and while I cannot give overall assessments, I can contribute to such assessments by this association with them in international activities.
In the case of Navin, we interacted closely when we both served as Trustees of the Iwokrama Rainforest Programme in its formative and uncertain stage in the 1990s. It was a difficult phase involved with fundraising, programme development, ensuring Guyana’s acceptance and substantial Amerindian participation and getting the enabling legislation drafted and accepted.
The Board required much cooperation and support from the Guyana government and Navin as the main contact person provided a vital link. He was always well prepared, very articulate, an accomplished presenter and provided much guidance at Board meetings and I can safely say that all external members including our eminent Chairman, Prof Swaminathan, generally recognised Navin’s very impressive contribution, which was crucial in determining whether the project would become established.
While Navin was always surprising us with his high level of preparation, this was never at the expense of his social interaction, which also enabled us to enjoy Guyana’s reputable hospitality, meet relevant local people including his very able and affable wife, Indra. In this connection, mention must also be made of Cecil Dhurjon of the Attorney-General’s Office, who did most of the drafting work on the Iwokrama Act and people like Rashleigh Jackson and Lance Carberry, who performed the link role before the change of government, and who enabled us to overcome severe project threatening problems at the launching phase and securing seed money. There is a very interesting early history of Iwokrama, which I hope someone will write up one day in which the roles of Navin and the others mentioned would feature prominently.
I had a further close contact with Navin when I served as Professor and Director at UWI’s Centre of Environ-ment and Development and he was Environmental Adviser to the government. He played a lead role in regional environment meetings at the time in the mid-1990s of great regional and international activity on environmental matters.
I got to know Carl Greenidge closely when, as Minister of Finance, he came to the annual meetings of Commonwealth Finance Ministers, which I was responsible for organising as Director of the Economic Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Carl was always well informed on international financial matters, and with his excellent speaking ability, he enabled Guyana to play a more prominent role at these meetings than was justified by Guyana’s economic size.
Later he carried senior roles in the ACP, of which Guyana should be proud and more latterly in the Regional Negotiating Machinery, a regional think-tank on trade matters, which in terms of the reputable expertise developed on international trade matters, deserves a much higher Caribbbean reputation than it has so far secured.
I do believe Guyana badly needs a widening group of commentators which aspires to objectivity and constructiveness, to a more forward-looking and sober and toned down political atmosphere and to more positive recognition of the high quality achieved by many of our people.
Yours faithfully,
Prof Bishnodat Persaud
