Dear Editor,
In your letter column, one Mr. Sharir Khan proffered the argument that Permanent Secretary Shannielle Hoosein-Outar, is entitled to her freedom to participate in her political choosing. Where in the missive, “I will not agree with Stabroek News’ chipping away at our guarantee of freedom of speech and association,” Mr. Sharir Khan attempted to defend Ms Hoosein-Outar presence at the PPP Congress, despite being a Permanent Secretary. However, on perusing Mr. Khan’s letter, it’s my humble opinion, he doesn’t appreciate the role and responsibilities of an apolitical Permanent Secretary. As a result, I will beg your indulgence and patience, to counter-argue the points Mr. Khan proffered, using this hypothetical case.
Let’s say for sake of argument, the Government is constituted by political party APNU+AFC, with the Permanent Secretary being a senior member of the opposition political party PPP. What could be seen from this construct, and vice versa, is the PPP Permanent Secretary has the potential, due to party affiliation, to undermine the government APNU+ AFC, of the day. Likewise, if the government is APNU+AFC and the Permanent Secretary also APNU+AFC, it is likely that the Permanent Secretary wouldn’t act in the interest of the electorate, holding the APNU+AFC government to account.
And it’s for this reason, among others, Permanent Secretaries internationally are apolitical, if they’re to ever stand a chance of being an objective check and balance, to the government of the day. Having said that, Ms. Hoosein-Outar isn’t precluded from exercising her democratic right in voting, rather she just can’t have party political membership. As a matter of fact, Ms. Hoosein-Outar is free to socially associate with friends from either political party, so her rights of association aren’t being denied. However, if she wishes to be a Permanent Secretary, she cannot have that association in the capacity of a political party member, at a partisan party Congress.
Having said that, I must remind the Editor that I raised this very issue in a letter to the Editor, “Permanent Secretaries should be apolitical,” predating your Editorial on Permanent Secretary. But unfortunately, it wasn’t published even though it was on Ms. Shannielle Hoosein-Outar being the Chief Negotiator for the government, in the teachers’ mediation.
Regards,
Dr. Mark Devonish
