Sidelining talent for political expediency

Jul 16, 2018 Letters

Dear Sir,
I consider myself a patriot and a dedicated Guyanese, where national development is of paramount importance.
The people that knows me personally, would tell you despite the knee jerks here and there by this young government, I have blanket support for them.
I will be a stupid young professional to ask this government to fast track certain areas of development, whereas some can definitely be improved.
Guyanese should remember we inherited a situation where there were literally a non-NATIONALIST mentality in a self-centered government that saw individual wealth as the ultimate, public infrastructure and heritage was on the back burner.
The World Bank had a stunning rebuke for Guyana a few years ago, where it was stated that every US$100 spent in Guyana US$20 is siphoned off.
I now come to the essence of my letter and putting “ horses for courses” .
Bharrat Jagdeo and by extension the PPP, has been very vocal in and out of parliament in reference to the issue of oil in general, be it Guyana’s share in revenue, local content, you name it. At his press conferences you will hear he would have done better than the current administration.
Mr. Editor I beg to differ. The opposition has literally embarrassed themselves with the parliamentarians that were identified to grill EXXON Mobil.
Here is where selfishness and shortsightedness prevailed over national interest.
It is common knowledge that Odinga Lumumba is an Natural Scientist/ Engineer and is duly qualified, but not Neeendkumar or Pauline Campbell-Sukhai. Here is where astute leadership comes in and the best persons for the job are recommended.
Let’s look at some possibilities in the line of fairness. Mohabir Anil Nandlall is touted as one of Guyana’s ‘BEST’ legal minds around at the moment and a possible presidential candidate. Ideally, he should have been an automatic choice. Then comes Charles Ramson Jnr.
Because he is ambitious, he should be sidelined?
My university colleague and friend Nigel Dharamlall who has a BSc in Agriculture and BA in Economics is another young bright mind in parliament that would have made better sense. He served as PS in more than one Ministry, Marketing Manager GRDB, Fisheries and Hydromet Departments Ministry of Agriculture. Why a man with such vast experience is sitting on the sidelines?
It is now clear as crystal that there is no shortage of talent, but they are being stymied by the sole custodian of the PPP.
This tells me clearly that political expedience overrides the best interest of the country. The question is now asked, why would we want to elect a leader whose EGO overrides the reality on the ground?
Erwin (DESERT FOX) Rommel, arguably the greatest strategist and Field Marshall once said, ‘“You should never let good opportunities to pass you by because of trifles”. Nazi Germany was more important to him than himself, only to be forced to commit suicide because FUHRER Hitler thought he was a potent threat.
This brings into focus another government critic that Bharrat Jagdeo literally disemboweled a few years ago at the National Cultural Centre— Christopher Lallbachan Ram. It was no secret that Chris was pursuing his Masters at Reading in Oil and Gas. He criticizes even the current administration. This is a man that has the capacity to pull the guts out of the Exxon Mobil team But no; if he represents us he will score political points.
Now we will see every effort to divert from the embarrassment this caused us and the common language used is ‘’Granger had his people stacked on the panel and you know they don’t like the PPP”.
I am no racist, but in Guyana as long as a representative from any of the two ethnic groups appears on a panel they are automatically linked to a party because of their ethnicity.
Guess EXXON Mobil team consisted of some so they would have debunked everything the chosen few asked them, despite it was pure trash.
As a concerned citizen, this is a situation that needs to be noted by our current government too, though I doubt President Granger would make such a colossal blunder. We should learn from the mistakes of others.
Sincerely yours,
R.R. Shepherd

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