Politicising the public service

May 21, 2015 Editorial

Just over two decades ago public servants were just that—public servants. They were never openly involved in politics and they were the effective buffer between the political Minister and the rest of the staff. No public servant would have turned up at a political meeting wearing party colours, not even when the People’s National Congress appeared to be the major power in the country.
Public servants were required to attend the congresses of the ruling party because the then Party Leader, Forbes Burnham, who was also the President of the country, said that they needed to explain to the people why certain things were happening at a certain time. These public servants were also required to attend General Council meetings of the PNC, but they were never considered to be politicians. They never held political office.
Permanent Secretaries were the advisors to the Minister. They were the people responsible for offering critical advice to the Ministers who in turn were expected to seek the relevant political solution. Those old enough would realize that Permanent Secretaries were so removed from politics that they were never caught up in any movement.
But this changed radically when President Cheddi Jagan assumed office. He immediately called for the resignation of all the Permanent Secretaries. There were some protestations from the wider society; President Jagan was politicizing the public service.
To his credit, he said that Presidents all over the world appoint those with whom they are comfortable. Indeed they appoint Judges and other professionals. Pretty soon legally constituted bodies ceded their responsibilities to politicians.
Things reached the stage where public servants felt beholden to the politicians. There was the case of the appointment of Justice James Bovell-Drakes as a Judge. The Judicial Service Commission, a constitutional body, had approved his appointment but there was the then President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Justice Bovell-Drakes had been a member of the youth arm of the People’s National Congress in his earlier days. So intense was Jagdeo’s hatred for anything that appeared to be in opposition to his party that he made the judicial appointment a political issue. It took the threat of a massive protest that could have shut down the judiciary to force Jagdeo to accede.
Indeed, once the appointment was made, the political administration had no control over the appointed Judge. But Jagdeo had one fail safe method—do not confirm the Judge so that he would always be beholden to the political directorate. Many, not least among them Justice Jainarayan Singh was one who suffered. His crime was to rule against the government when all the evidence suggested that the government was wrong.
The police had destroyed a building owned by Norman Trotz in pursuit of Linden London. Trotz petitioned the court and Justice Jainarayan Singh said that the government must compensate Trotz. That was only one case.
In later days we saw the total politicization of the public service. Permanent Secretaries opted to join a political campaign. In the just concluded elections some of them even appeared on the ticket as candidates for a political party. The politicization of the public service was complete.
The new President, David Granger, wants a return of a professional public service. He is asking that once more, the focus be put on people and public service rather than on a political party. Bias is a natural part of human life so he knows that there would be political bias but that should not affect professionalism.
So where do we begin? Granger says that he proposes to have a school for public servants “so that they could learn to spell”. He also expects politicians to be good advisors to Ministers and not serving politicians.
But there should never have been such a call. In many countries, public servants are allowed their freedom. We have seen ambassadors continue in office even when the Presidency or the party changes. In neighbouring Trinidad and even in Jamaica, there is no interference with the public service.
We had to be different because we wanted total control of the country.

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Politicising the public service

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