Dear Editor,
When I heard that our brand-new President had embarked upon the course of establishing his constitutional office as our country’s principal ‘Cabinet-maker,’ I reached for my favourite daily and there he was, not the Chief in all his excellence as you ought to expect – but that reassuring presence, the white haired eminence, the Prince of Protocol Mr ‘Vic’ Persaud, doing his thing. This goodly gentleman − The Old Vic − has lent legitimacy to any formal proceedings involving our Head of State and political dignitaries of every hue for so many moons that he has established his brand – that calm and respectful presence on all such formal occasions.
I would never have expected it, but he actually has a proper name, Eshwar Vevakanand Persaud, as it appeared in the announcement of recent awardees of the Cacique’s Crown of Honour, a crown of which he is truly worthy.
On my first visit to the USA in early October, 1972 as an officer of the Guyana Bauxite Company there he was, the dapper young foreign service officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs adding his professional touch to the reception of the company’s Chairman and my humble self. In Moscow 1980 on my visit to the Olympic Games I had the pleasure of his presence and friendship when he served as an official at our embassy in that country.
There are some human institutions who, by virtue of their grace, gestures of pleasantness and the efficiency of performance, stamp themselves on your mind and establish themselves as essential to public service. Vic was, and remains, such an one!
May God preserve him, and of course his good wife for many a year.
Yours faithfully,
Leon O Rockcliffe
