Either Guyana is sick or the world is insane

Jun 05, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The world is not going in psychotic directions. It is Guyana that is. If Macron had lost the French presidential election to his far-right racist, candidate I would have said yes, the world is mad. But he won and so did Mrs. Clinton. In the one person, one vote scenario she got more than three million votes than Trump. Trump did not collect more votes than Mrs. Clinton and that tells a story all by itself that Trump’s triumph was not a landslide victory.
I would have been pessimistic if India, one of the most important countries in the world, had followed Trump and dumped the Paris climate pact. It didn’t, nor did Europe; so the world is not going insane. On the contrary the world may be reflecting on how crazy things are going and is pulling back. At the time of writing, the polls are showing that the Conservative Party that is taking the UK out of the EU will not win a parliamentary majority.
Sane things are going on in the world that make us believe rationality will endure and save us. I am not sure about Guyana. We just heard the news that Mayor Chase-Green is the new chairman of the Board of Guyana Water Inc. There is nothing in the career of this woman that makes her eligible for the headship of such a vital public utility company.
Since the date of modern civilization, the norm in society is that skills applied to functions result in higher output. It is a fundamental principle of life. It applies to everything in life.
If a cricketer can bat and bowl superbly, you call him an all-rounder. He will make the team faster than anyone else. The name Andre Russell stands out in international T/20 cricket. He brings skills to the function of his team. He brings victory. I don’t think it is necessary to cite more examples of the relevance of skills and achievements in the selection of people to do a job. Where are the skills and accomplishments of the Mayor?
Even on her own turf, that is, the Georgetown Municipality, the accomplishments are invisible. Should a country select a woman to head one of its most important utility services after her involvement with the parking meter contract? Leave out the parking meter scandal, the City Council’s performance is abysmal since the local government elections in 2016. We have gone back to the days of a dirty capital with clogged drains, unclean gutters and mountainous garbage on the city’s parapets. I see this every day in Charlestown when I go to Kaieteur News
Should a country reward such people for their lackluster performance? In the insane land of Guyana we do it. It is called mediocrity. Mediocrity leaves nations behind. We have been left behind for more than sixty years and the reason is we continue to put politics in front of national interest.
The question that is obvious is; does this country have engineers and skilled management people that can chair the Board of GWI? The answer is yes and I know some of them. They were never asked because they are professional people who have no political connections. Another related question comes up; when are we going to stop putting politics in front of national development. What criteria were used to select Chase-Green for the headship of GWI board.
The levels of mediocrity are simply incredible in this country and mediocrity is rewarded with each passing day. It was the government itself that announced that it wants to advertise the vacancies of Chief Justice and Chancellor, yet we saw no advertisement for the recent vacancies for four openings in the High Court.
I don’t want to keep carping on the elevation of the Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan to judgeship; I wrote on that last week. But I would like to reiterate what I consider commonsense in management – the process of evaluation.
If you are going to place subordinate officers, whether in the public bureaucracy or in the private sector, into the top of the hierarchy in the respective workplace, then surely, there must be the process of evaluation.
I will end with a simple hypothetical example. The next in line for the headship of the NIS is the chairman of the Lethem branch. Shouldn’t there be an examination of how the Lethem person performed over the years?
If it was a dismal performance why put him/her to head the national body? This is a funny, funny country. Cash strapped UG was about to rent a downtown building for $6 million monthly.

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