The Transparency Institute Guyana Inc (TIGI), an affiliate of Transparency International, is holding its second annual fundraising dinner at the Pegasus Hotel on Friday, 22 November at 7 pm. Readers will recall that around the same time last year, we held our first fundraising dinner which was well attended. Our guest speaker was Derek Murray, legendary West Indies wicketkeeper of yesteryear, and the current chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago chapter of Transparency International. Those present will recall his comment that “corruption can affect the soul of a nation”. We at TIGI believe that corruption does affect the soul of a nation.
This year, we will have another outstanding Caribbean personality deliver the feature address. Trevor Munroe is a renowned Oxford-trained academic who is a Professor of Government and Politics at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica. Like Derek Murray, he is the head of the local Transparency International body in Jamaica. He is also the only person from the Caribbean to be an individual member of Transparency International, joining 27 others worldwide.
Prof Munroe is a Jamaican political scientist, labour activist and politician. He attended the University of the West Indies and won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University where he obtained his PhD in political science for a landmark study of the process of decolonisation of Jamaica +
between the 1930s and 1960s. Upon his return to Jamaica, he became actively involved in the events that followed the Rodney Riots of 1968. It will be recalled that Dr Walter Rodney had attended a conference in Canada and upon his return, was banned from entering Jamaica to his teaching post at the Mona Campus.
Prof Munroe was a Senator of the Parliament of Jamaica during the period 1998-2007 and has appeared regularly on Jamaica Speaks, a radio programme. He has authored and co-authored eight books mainly on Caribbean democratic governance. His 1972 book remains the authoritative work on Jamaica’s transition to Independence.
Prof Munroe will speak on combating corruption in the Caribbean and will draw on Jamaica’s experience.
Transparency International will be represented by Mr Maximilan Heywood, Regional Coordinator for Transparency International’s Americas department, based in Berlin. Originally from the UK, he lived in Argentina for several years, where prior to joining Transparency International in 2009, he worked as a researcher for the Economics Institute of the Cordoba Stock Exchange. Mr Heywood holds a BSc in Economics from Utrecht University (Netherlands) and an MSc in Public Policy in Latin America from Oxford University (UK). Mr Heywood will deliver a short message and so will British High Commissioner Mr Andrew Ayre. The Buxton Drummers will also be in attendance.
The master of ceremonies will be Dr Arif Bulkan, a director of TIGI and lecturer in constitutional law at the University of West Indies, St Augustine Campus.
Members of the Diplomatic Corps have been invited to grace the occasion. Invitations were also extended to his Excellency, President Donald Ramotar; Advisor on Governance, Ms Gail Teixeira; Prime Minister Sam Hinds and Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh. All in all, the evening promises to be an exciting one. Tickets are available at our office at 157 Waterloo Street (Private Sector Building), North Cummingsburg, Georgetown, telephone no. 1-592-231-9586.
TIGI takes this opportunity to express its gratitude to all those organisations that have contributed financially towards the event, in particular, the Pegasus Hotel for providing the venue free of charge. We also wish to acknowledge publicly the financial contributions of the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, though their representation in Guyana, to assist TIGI in the start up of its operations.
