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The big thinker: From roti to jewellery to Paul Slowe

Jun 04, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

President Jagdeo, almost three months ago, was the featured speaker at the opening ceremony at the airport branch of the popular city restaurant, Roti Hut.
Mr. Jagdeo as can be predicted, chose not to apologize to his listeners for the stink capital city; absence of working traffic lights; clogged drains all over Guyana; mounting unsolved crimes; an unstoppable crime syndrome; a yet to be developed forensic lab for the Guyana Police Force; lamentable lack of school teachers at every level; absence of modern toilet facilities in most schools in the entire territory named Guyana; post-Christmas blackouts, inability of GWI to invent a computer programme for meter-reading; absence of street lights in almost the entire capital city – even outside his offices on Vlissengen Road and the entire police estate in Eve Leary; humongous lines outside the passport office consisting also of citizens from far, far away outside of Demerara; the increasing disappearance of the University of Guyana; severe shortage of Magistrates; a Deeds Registry in the High Court that cries out for modernization; the Georgetown Public Hospital where death comes too easily, among the many social pathologies that characterize his presidency.
The enumeration above does not take in a pathetic economic performance and the disease of kleptomania that has made Guyana the most corrupt country since the English colonized the region.
At the Roti Hut celebration in March, Mr. Jagdeo took a dig at those who paint a negative picture of Guyana and followed that up with his usual line – painting a rosy canvas of the country he is President of.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Jagdeo was back at the airport to repeat the same banality – open up a new business, lash out at the private media and engage in self-praise.
This time the event was a new branch of King’s Jewellery and Mr. Jagdeo added a new item to his repertoire.
When I read about his latest concept, I must confess I was irritated and offended. President Jagdeo urged his listeners and the nation at large to think big. Why was I mad? Because President Jagdeo is one of the few leaders in these parts of the world who does not think big. Can someone point to a big thinking act of Mr. Jagdeo? Is it the LCDS? It cannot be, when that brings in a sum of money that is literally a drop in the ocean to what Guyana’s needs are, and the conditions attached to the Norwegian funds are an embarrassment to Guyana’s sovereignty. Mr. Jagdeo’s LCDS programme has been torn to shreds by Professor Clive Thomas and Dr. Janet Bulkan.
So what else is big from Mr. Jagdeo. We don’t have to go far. Right in Mr. Jagdeo’s cabinet is someone who has upstaged Mr. Jagdeo in terms of thinking big.
Knowing that Guyana is devoid of an adequate supply of teachers, the Minister of Education has come up with a big idea.
He was thinking big. A year ago he submitted a paper for the legal upping of the retirement age of teachers from 55 to 60.
Now Mr. Jagdeo could think as big as his Minister and agree. But the Minister’s paper is sitting on Mr. Jagdeo’s desk a year now. This brings us to the small thinking of the President who has been labeled the Champion of the Earth.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Paul Slowe, has reached the retirement age of 55 after spending 37 years in the Force. In which part of the modern world, do they retire police officers at 55? And to think the man who can change that is urging his nation to think big.
This is a country with a disappearing human resource index. More than that, we have a deadly crime malignancy plaguing the nation. How can we retire people like Mr. Slowe with a wealth of expertise that this country needs?
I do not visit the cocktail circuit and I have been a columnist since 1988. But Mr. Slowe has sent me a personal invitation to attend his cocktail reception in honour of his retirement. I will go out of respect and admiration for one of the finest men in uniform that this country produced.
I have taught Mr. Slowe as a student at UG, and he showed his talent in class. It is a disgrace for any politician in this country to accept the retirement of teachers, army officers and decorated policemen at the age of 55.
It takes a leader to think big and take the big step to eradicate this anachronism. Do we have leaders in Guyana that think big?

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