Nigel Hughes Commended for Study

Dec 31, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I refer to recent study (titled “Economy and Justice in Guyana) funded by prominent, distinguished, respected lawyer Mr. Nigel Hughes, as published in the media, and carried in the international media in early December, which shows that African Guyanese are underrepresented in the awarding of government contracts. I cannot comment on the claims made as I am not familiar with the methodology of the study – based on number of contracts, monetary value, bidders by ethnicity, rejections by ethnicity, etc. It is also not known if the data was analyzed or broken down by any other categories besides race. I do not have independent access to Government data to test the veracity of the findings. If factual or borne out by other studies, it is a serious cause of concern and must be addressed.

I wish to commend the Lawyer for financing this important study. No similar study on ethnicity was ever conducted in recent memory because of a lack of data and funding and because of fear of victimization of researchers. No Indian lawyer or business person (or no one from any other ethnic group) or the government had ever funded such a study to determine ethnic distribution of Government contracts or state employment or housing or distribution of resources. There also have not been studies on distribution of resources by residential communities and between rural and urban and hinterland areas. Communities complain and indeed are perceived and empirically observed to be marginalized in accessing or in the distribution of state resources.

The preceding David Granger Administration committed significant amounts of resources on historical research, especially of supporters of his political party. No such resources were committed by his immediate predecessors or successor. Efforts to conduct research on indentureship documents have not been fruitful even with offer of private funding from the Indian Guyanese diaspora.

EX- President Granger and Mr. Hughes are applauded for their support towards historical research. Several of us who have been doing research that would benefit the nation have depended on self-funding. Businesses generally do not support activities or research for which there is no financial return. Hughes’s generous funding and concerns about his community should serve as a model for philanthropy and for research by scholars of other communities.

Yours sincerely,

Vishnu Bisram