Old may be gold but the young are all around

Jan 09, 2023 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – There was a time when politics was the vocation of the young. Both Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan were young men when they became involved in politics.

Both men were politically active before they made their entry into ministerial positions and legislative politics respectively.

Forbes Burnham was thirty years old when he became Guyana’s Minister of Education. Cheddi Jagan was 29 years when he was elected to the Legislative Council. Both had been active in politics years before.

Both Burnham and Jagan, when they were together, were criticized by those who were against the change the two leaders were forcing on the country.

These leaders were described as enthusiastic but inexperienced young men. These were the labels that were pinned on them. In other words, they were seen by the colonial authorities as reckless Young Turks who needed experience.

They did not do too badly. They led the country to political Independence.

Politics was like a bottle of tonic. It invigorated the nation. That did not last too long though. There came a time when our young people became so fed up with politics that they opted out of it. In the late seventies and early eighties, politics was a frightening experience for opposition supporters. The fear, the repression and the violence scared many a young person from dabbling in politics.

That situation began to change with the return to democracy. The PPP returned to office in 1992. By then, most of the older generation of leaders had died. Most of the then leaders were middle aged but this did not stop the party from investing in young people.

Bharrat Jagdeo was just over thirty when he became a Minister and he was below thirty-five years of age when he became President of Guyana. Both Irfaan Ali and Robert Persaud became Ministers of the Government at a pretty young age.

The PPPC has also appointed a number of young persons as Permanent Secretaries. In fact, there were a number of young men who were appointed Permanent Secretaries by the People’s Progressive Party.

They did not do too badly administratively. Any criticism of them had nothing to do with their ability to administer their ministries. No one suggested that they were too young for their jobs.

I am therefore at my wits end to understand why the APNU+AFC coalition implemented a policy of some junior Ministers having to understudy their senior counterparts. There was no need for this.

Throw these Ministers into the deep end of ministerial work just as how Burnham and Jagan were thrown into politics at a young age. These young Ministers do not need to understudy anyone. The only way they will learn is by being on the job. In Guyana’s heady political environment, everyone learns quickly.

The fact that someone is young should not be used as an excuse for him or her being made a Junior Minister. In fact, this is a disrespectful label to call any Minister. Young people have a lot of energy and therefore more of them need to be made Ministers.

There is nothing wrong with having experienced persons as Ministers. There is nothing wrong with having elderly persons as Ministers. So long as these older folks can keep their eyes open eight hours during the day, they should qualify to be Ministers. You do not want Ministers who are nodding off all the time. We saw a lot of that in the previous parliament.

Old may be gold but the young are all around. With age comes wisdom and experience. Some of that is needed. But also needed are youthful exuberance and drive.

Young people have to be given a chance because a government is supposed to reflect the population. The bulk of Guyana’s population is comprised of young people. They need to see themselves reflected in the government.

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