Henry goes to school (again)

Jan 31, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I hope no one offers sympathy to Dr Henry Jeffrey. He does not deserve it. Don’t tell me that an organizational manager is a person we can trust when for sixteen years he refused to denounce all the things the boss did at the company – stole company gas and blamed it on others; stole company food and blamed it on the coffee lady; broke into employees’ cars and blamed it on the security personnel; stole the roses from the ambience and blamed it on the gardener; stole the company’s money and blamed middle managers.
All this time, you sat there, saw the evidence mounting against this guy but you said not a word. Then you resign because you caught the boss ripping out your car stereo.
What kind of person should you should be classified as?
Before I go into the reason for Dr Henry Jeffrey’s resignation from the Cabinet, let me repeat what I once wrote in this column many moons ago. Dr. Jeffrey’s wife, Josephine Whitehead, and I worked in the same department at UG. One day, she told me why her husband broke with the Burnham Government. She said the banning of flour was the last straw for Henry.
When she spoke, I wanted to sing to her the Belafonte classic; “There’s a hole in bucket, Dear Henry, Dear Henry.”
In those days I was accustomed to putting my foot in my mouth (I guess my detractors and those anonymous Freddie bashers would say I still do). I asked Josephine why flour and not all the unspeakable atrocities committed by Burnham. I was intelligent enough to understand that “different strokes for different folks” but there are times passion replaces manners.
One cannot object to the reasons for values. They vary in each of us. If Henry thought Burnham crossed the line when he made banned flour then that person is entitled to his way of life. As for me, though I respect the reasons for values, I believe like the late Pope John Paul that there are some absolute values that inhere in life.
One day, our narrow approach to values will come back to haunt us. History has proven that it does. Take the learned Stabroek News columnist, Ian Mc Donald. He writes good stuff on literature and poetry. Nice columns to read if you like poetry and who doesn’t like poetry.
One day, I noticed that Mr. Mc Donald departed from his tradition and castigated the government for withdrawing state advertisements from Stabroek News. It was a political essay from Mr. Mc Donald who sits on the editorial board of the paper and is a director. However generous you want to be to Mr. Mc Donald, his position was simple and logical – the government did a wrong that came close to home and I complained. Once it wasn’t close to home, Mr. Mc Donald went about his literary business.
I understand the reasons for values but in this case I don’t agree. Back to Henry Jeffrey. He is out of the Cabinet after sixteen years of membership at a senior level. My understanding was that a rift developed between the Minister and the President over the nature of the EPA.
Anyone familiar with the contours of the disagreement would know that Minister Jeffrey’s stay became untenable. In the media we hear all kinds of stories.
I was told by one of my most trusted contacts in the Cabinet that Minister Jeffrey was asked to resign. Dr. Jeffrey said otherwise. Let us leave it at that. The point I want to belabour ad naseum is that Dr Jeffrey did not break with the Jagdeo Government over a fundamental objection about the nature of rulership.
In fact, Dr. Jeffrey was quoted as saying that for the openings he had in mind after his exodus from the Cabinet, the Government was not forthcoming on. So he still wanted to stay within the hierarchy of the State which is shaped and directed by Mr. Jagdeo.
My honest and deeply felt belief is that Dr Henry Jeffrey was never nationalist material and was never adept at Ministerial portfolios.
He returns to the University of Guyana where he will be nicknamed, Deryck Bernard, the Second. Mr. Bernard served as Minister if Education from 1985-1992 and he did nothing for UG. After the Hoyte Government fell Bernard returned to UG and became a critic at what the University had become. He bitterly criticised the building of a student dormitory on the perimeter of the football field. But when as Minister, UG had no dormitories.
As Minister of Education, Dr Henry Jeffrey did nothing for UG. Why is he coming back?

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Henry goes to school (again)

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