Dear Editor,
On a recent flight from Japan to the United States, I stumbled on a quote by Eric Arthur Blair, a British Indian essayist, novelist, journalist and critic who under the penmanship of George Orwell said “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” In response to the September 11, 2023 article by the boyish professor Dr. Randolph Persaud, I will deconstruct his folly assertion that there is no racial dilemma and that political parties in Guyana have been able to build prosperous political institutions based on “competent supporters.” His intention of this factionary missive is nothing short of sheer hypocrisy and misleading idealism filled with unwavering deceit. Now, it’s my obligation to spearhead the dissemination of the truth, which is something the naïve professor severely lacks.
The assertion that political parties are supposed to be “key institutions in competitive democratic political systems” cannot be debated, but in Guyana there has not been a single political party in the last 60 years that has built effective social, political and economic institutions for the citizens. Rather, parties have been a friend and family institution of “jobs and contracts for the boys” as well as massive giveaways to multinational corporations at the behest of poverty and marginalization of its citizens. This is what the piddling professor has not been able to explain.
Apparently, the misinformed professor is not sure of yours-truly knowledge of politics, hence, he should consult with the academic department of my university for an extensive listing of coursework I have completed in international relations and politics. Using the United States of America as the model for a distinction between state and government is a gross miscalculation in contrast to Guyana. Though the state (civil servants) experiences minimal changes in personnel, the government (cabinet) experiences pronounced changes and sets the agenda for the administration and country. As an example, the Trump and Obama administrations drew stark contrasts in the directives and policies of the United States. In Guyana, the state is incapable of creating policies to grow effective institutions while investing in human development. Rather, the governments are the driving force for the direction of the country, hence, his insipid points on whose fueling racial ills much less fixing them is unsubstantiated. Case and point, the state by way of law enforcement should have prosecuted the grooming, coercion and alleged raping of an Indigenous teenager by the Former Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, rather, the government conjured with the justice system by way of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) to sidetrack pending charges leveled by the police against the Minister. Similarly, state entities such as Guyana Power and Light cannot provide adequate electricity and settles for tomfoolery excuses for repeated blackouts, mismanagement and financial impropriety as a norm and the government fails to accept responsibility for this rudderless state institution. So, it’s moronic for the Professor, who is an Adviser to the President, to make such false claims which tells of the type of advice he is giving to the President. His ill-conceived ideas are based strictly on financial rewards or whatever he can collect from the government at the expense of the taxpayers.
The callous professor needs to stop being complacent and in denial of the truth. He should seek to refresh his out-of-touch knowledge and references. While at it, this incompetent fellow should seek to improve his writing style that is akin to less than an elementary level student. Providing a small sample size of convenient names of experts whom the government turn to for last resort expert opinions to which it cannot glean from anywhere else, is less than ideal. There are many more experts in Guyana and in the diaspora that are knowledgeable in politics, economics, health, agriculture, education and housing sectors just to name a few that are not being utilized. And this has been the problem with governments and the nutty professor who has and continues to practice partisan politics in Guyana for the last six decades. This is why youths who are 66 percent of the population have to come to the forefront and change partisan politics for the betterment of Guyana.
In conclusion, the delusionary grandeur advisor makes an accurate point that “the government must make good on educating the populace on politics and keys to institutions.” Then immediately, pivots to a grandstanding of his political party’s superpower in preventing the dilemma of Thomas Hobbes “life of nasty, brutish and short.” Civil servants don’t spearhead policies in parliament, control political agendas like death squads, laundering of money through vain projects, target political opponents, and marginalization of a section of the population for expressing truths (such as yours truly response in this article). Fostering a leadership model of corruption and sleaziness are all components of Hobbes Leviathan state of which the government he claims to advise has been an active participant. It is without a doubt, all these truths are easily verifiable by the common man pointing to a deeper racial divide that exist in the country and is troubling and appalling to think someone who claims to be a professor cannot differentiate between a nasty, brutish and reticent regime, and the ideal of justice of which Platonic, Aristotelian and Thucydidian philosophies advocate.
Thank You,
Collin Haynes MPH MBA
