Crisis at UG: Obama called Kanye West a jackass

May 22, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

If there is any human on Planet Earth that would never be coarse in public and always be careful and polite in what he publicly states it is Barack

Freddie Kissoon

Obama. But when Kanye West went on stage at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony and took the mike from Taylor Swift and denounced her award, Obama referred to West as a jackass. Three years later, Obama repeated this description in an interview with the Atlantic Monthly.
When Obama could lose his cool and do such name-calling, then West had to have done something awful. In this country, the world of politics produces party supporters from both sides of the aisle that make you so angry with them that Obama’s Kanye West remark is relevant in its application to them.
Criticism of the APNU+AFC Coalition since its huge increase in salary for its ministers, weeks after it came to power, has continued unabated. Since 2015, the APNU+AFC leadership has done unpalatable, egregious, undemocratic, shameful things. Its four years has been blighted. Yet there are barefaced people who would defend the government with an asinine reaction – the PPP has done worse. Are these people deserving of the appellation – jackass?
What the APNU+AFC Coalition has done that is so depressing is that its four years of power has proven that the PPP does not have a monopoly on bad governance. The APNU+AFC leadership practices bad governance, aspects of which are worse than when the PPP ruled the waves.
For the purpose of this column, I will highlight UG’s leadership since 2015. I say unambiguously, the APNU+AFC administration should fall on the basis of its encouragement of horrible performance at UG.
In my piece yesterday, I wrote; “In a forthcoming column on UG I will do a fantastic chauvinistic act for which all readers, in and out of Guyana, will accuse me of showing off. But I will show off and ask your forgiveness because when you read the context, you will understand why I am boasting.” This article here is the show-off column.
I stay in my corner and laugh at what I should not be cynical about – the tragedy of my country. I stand alone in pointing to unsuitable people and there is a torrent of condemnations. The refrain is always predictable – Freddie likes to criticise people. And as time passes, and I am proven right, I remain in my lonely corner and laugh at the mockery this country has become.
I have been a lecturer, union leader and Council member at UG when the PPP was in power. I believe I can judge what UG was like under the PPP administration and what UG has become under the APNU+AFC regime.
When Professor Griffith took up the position of Vice Chancellor (VC), I became the only Guyanese in and out of the land to criticise him. I stood alone. I saw his perspective, directions, and policies very early on and I saw the danger and wrote about them. I was the only Guyanese in the world (I warn you I would show-off) to publicly denounce the humongous senior staff layout at one of the world’s smallest universities.
Today, per capita, UG has the largest senior staff structure in the world, with a vice chancellor and three deputies plus a huge layer right beneath those placements. Guyana never had an official installation ceremony for a vice chancellor. Griffith had one and when you see the official invitation, each one had to cost about 5,000 dollars to print.
A documentary was done on me recently and the interview took place in UG’s library. I was shocked that UG’s library is not air-conditioned. Chancellor Nigel Harris took umbrage at my denunciation of Griffith. Harris perhaps never worked a day in Guyana. He gave up the post of chancellor. He has lived all his life outside of Guyana.
Today UG is in a crisis, and if one reads the criticism of people like Chris Ram, the unions and others, Freddie Kissoon touched on those identical issues when no other Guyanese dared. The two unions have written a letter this week to the president describing a horrible administration. It was not penned by Freddie Kissoon. The two unions have written an open statement to its members asking for the removal of both the VC and the Pro-Chancellor, Major General Joe Singh. It was not written by Freddie Kissoon.
The two unions have penned a devastating missive to the President of the TUC, Coretta McDonald, asking for the recall of the TUC’s representative on the UG Council, Ivor English, whom the unions contend has betrayed workers’ rights for six years. Freddie Kissoon exposed that situation two years ago. And he was alone in doing so. An apology for showing off.

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