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Ms. Mc Dougall’s report ignored the many advances the country has and is making

Apr 29, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
Some years ago, when I was president of the Guyana Consumers Association, I was invited to a meeting at the UNDP in Brickdam where I met the head at that time, Mr. Richard Olver, other officials such as Mr. Gopaul Yadav, and the Caribbean head of the UNDP, a Japanese gentleman.
Among the attendees, with myself were Ms. Joycelyn Dow, Randolph Kirton, Patrick Dial, Lincoln Lewis, and others.
I listened to complaints being made about things in the country, not from the head table, but one or two of the attendees especially about our educational system, as well as other things.
We were told about faults in the educational system and the migration of teachers and the bad effect this was having. I took the opportunity to point out that something must be going well that we can produce so many qualified teachers for export.
These people had to attend primary and secondary schools, Teacher Training College and the University of Guyana, and were passing their exams in order to qualify as teachers, so something must be going right in our educational system.
When I was leaving, Mr. Gopaul Yadav and I had a brief conversation and he told me how he “saw so many children going to school and they looked so happy.”
Some time after, I saw in the media that the UNDP head, Mr. Olver had said that he was “pessimistic” about things in Guyana. Subsequently, I met up with him at a function at the Umana Yana and I told him he had to be “pessimistic” because he was talking to the wrong people.
He got angry and snapped “and who must I talk to, you?” I told him not necessarily but that he should meet with more people, and around the country and he would get a better and more balanced perspective.
I also recollect that at the UNDP meeting we were told that they had informed the government that that they would be working with NGOs, and the Government told them that they had no problem with this.
I felt that this was good, because it showed the democratic nature of the government for one thing and secondly that this information was given by the UNDP itself and not by the government.
As regards the report by the United Nations Independent Expert on Minorities, Ms. Gay Mc Dougall, this report was completely one-sided and ignored the many advances the country has and is making, in spite of difficulties. She ignored the inputs  by the government and also, most extra-ordinarily, the reports of the Ethnic Relations Commission and she obviously, in my view, had fallen prey, as did Mr. Olver and  others, to the rhetoric and propaganda of the  main opposition party, the PNCR, and certain columnists.
I feel that one of the biggest contradictions of her views is the fact that after a recent meeting, the leader of the opposition and the PNCR Mr. Robert Corbin, made the statement that they were going to win the next elections in 2011.
This is not the statement of any marginalised people, suffering from discrimination. To do this, that is, to win the next elections, they would have to win voters from the other minority parties – the PPP, GAP/Roar, the AFC and from the Amerindians.
John Da Silva

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