Dear Editor,
On February 13-14, 2014, I attended a two-day Regional Health and Education workshop for the managers of the ten administrative regions in Guyana that was organized by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. I would like to thank the ministry for organizing this workshop.
The first day of the workshop addressed health issues, and the workshop was well conducted. Many issues in the regions were discussed and dealt with. The second day of the workshop was on educational issues. However, while the Minister of Health was very professional in dealing with the health issues, that was not the case with the Minister of Education.
From her opening remarks in the morning session she chose to attack the Regional Chairman of Region Ten who was not at the workshop to defend himself concerning the One Mile Primary School that was burnt down. Her behaviour was worse in the afternoon session. As soon as I attempted to raise an issue with the Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker when the microphone was handed to me, before I could say a word, the Minister of Education started heckling, “Chairman why you went into the dorms?” As she continued heckling I gave the microphone to her to hear what was bothering her. She mentioned that she received a report that a team from the AFC paid a visit to the Mahdia Secondary School dorms and that was wrong, and “you guys cannot be doing that,” and she went on to say much more.
She even mentioned that a councillor from the AFC placed a couple of students to pose with some firewood on their shoulders to show that they were fetching the firewood. This was in order, she said, that it could become the subject of news reports in the media, and that she had received a statement from the Toshao of Kato that the students had never fetched any firewood. What was more alarming was that while the Minister was behaving in that manner the Minister within the Ministry of Local Government who was next to her did not see the wisdom in advising her that she was at a workshop and not in parliament, or on a political platform. Unfortunately he did nothing to caution her. Apparently he did not see anything wrong with her behaving in such an unethical manner. It is rather unfortunate how some of our leaders use memorials, churches, workshops, social gatherings, etc, for political purposes.
If the Minister had issues with me she should have known that that was not the forum to discuss those issues. I believe that by now she should have known the truth concerning the firewood incident at Kato, since she is a dynamic communicator and her job demands that.
In conclusion, since the Minister is claiming that the Councillor is lying and the children never fetched any firewood, the Councillor has indicated to me that if it is proven that he is lying he is willing to resign as a councillor, and if it is proven that the children did indeed fetch the firewood the Minister should be willing to do the honourable thing.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Crawford
Chairman
Region Eight