What are the real curses?

Dear Editor,

Two statements reportedly made by President David Granger in a speech to an audience in New York while attending the United Nations General Assembly attracted my attention: one was an exhortation to members of the Guyanese diaspora to return home as the country needed brains, not barrels, and the other was a description of sugar, rice, bauxite, gold, diamonds and timber as the “curse of the six sisters”, perhaps a play on the Seven Sisters in oil.

Unfortunately, Mr Granger did not on that or any earlier occasion indicate the basis, logic and justification of the call for brains. Guyanese abroad respectfully attend presidential visits as a social event but have not been responding to President Granger’s several calls, in the absence of an industrial or investment policy, or a diaspora policy, or a crime policy. We not only need such policies but also a study to identify the skills set the President so much wants to attract.

In their adopted countries, the members of the Guyanese diaspora have worked hard to acquire their skills, operate in a functioning democracy (despite Trump), are employed in an organised and professional work environment, are reasonably well paid, are not subject to glaring discrimination, enjoy a decent standard of living and, very importantly, feel safe in the society in which they live. None of these can be taken for granted in Guyana.

I would also respectfully suggest to the President to have his Public Service Department carry out an audit of the persons dismissed since his administration took office, together with their qualifications and experience. There are a lot of discarded and unused brains available but unfortunately they seem to lack the further qualification of the right race. Glaringly, this is true of the permanent secretaries under the PPP/C but let me give two examples in which an explanation was in fact offered.

• Mr Colin Croal holds an MBA and served creditably as Permanent Secretary in three ministries. He is not implicated in any wrongdoing but was effectively dismissed by the Granger administration because he was on the PPP/C list for the 2015 elections.

• By contrast, Ms Elisabeth Harper was the PPP/C prime ministerial candidate for the elections! Yet, no sooner was she terminated than she was recalled. Other than gender, was there some reason?

Of course, being on an electoral list appears to have been a qualification for top jobs in the Granger administration for the hierarchy of the APNU and AFC parties, some of whom are paid high salaries determined on the whim of persons of equally suspect expertise for doing work for which they have no academic or professional qualifications or experience.

Finally, on this point: if these short sighted, self-serving, antinational policies continue, we will find that many persons with brains who have stayed in Guyana will