Dear Editor,
In my personal opinion, if collateral damage is to continue being the order of the day come budget time, Guyana’s fragile developmental trajectory cannot continue to suffer these multiple annual interruptions to its progress without irreparable damage to its competitiveness. This is patently not why our electorate enfranchised the Opposition with a majority.
In addition to Mr Ramjattan’s letter, I note a letter in response to mine from Mr Sasenarine Singh, who if it is the same person, was a year or two ahead of me at Queen’s College. Whilst I wish to thank Sase (if this is the same person I went to school with, I feel he would be comfortable with the use of his first name) for his kind words, especially those directed at the institute, I also at the same time would like to encourage him to not rush to label those who comment as peddling propaganda.
I do understand that Sase has chosen to be politically involved, but I would like to ask him to respect that I on the other hand have carefully chosen, over the eight years I have been Director of IAST, to remain scrupulously apolitical.
And I think it is important for those who would be our political leaders of tomorrow, such as Sase, to make room for the technocracy of this country to have a say and not to rush to place them in political categories.
To lose what little of that voice we have left in this country is to entertain a barren, desolate society which is too Orwellian for comfort. I welcome opinions that are opposed to mine – as a person whose entire life has been spent in the pursuit of scientific explanation of our natural world, I value different perspectives. But I do not take kindly to being accused of peddling propaganda.
And lastly, I have been exhorted by Mr Alfred Bhulai to apologise to the Opposition. I have never met Mr Bhulai, although I know of him by reputation from students of his who later did their MSc and PhD degrees under my supervision.
Unanimously, they all had glowing praise for his mentorship, and therefore by extension, I also have held Mr Bhulai in high esteem.
Despite this esteem, however, I am afraid I shall not be apologising to the Opposition. One, because I did not seek to insult them, but simply to ask them to fulfil a role which they were elected to serve, and two, because as Mr Ramjattan’s letter clearly established, no offence was taken by my letter.
Mr Bhulai seems to also labour under the assumption that the IAST enjoys a privileged position because its Director expects that its staff should be paid. Until and unless the Government chooses to shutdown the institute or fire its staff, then I shall tirelessly work to ensure that they are paid, dear Editor.
There is no privilege in this – simply compensation for their hard work, protection for which is enshrined in our laws and codices and hard won by our country’s long years of valued trade unionism. As for capital funding which the agency has received over the years, I am happy to provide to Mr Bhulai the very thorough justifications for funding which is provided by staff at the institute whose compensation he is willing to regard as privileged.
Not only the justifications, but the many cuts and checks and balances at multiple hierarchies that are usually a part of the process, and the sustained level of advocacy and representation that I have personally invested to convince Government of the wisdom of research and development expenditure.
All my professional life I have competed for research funding and until now, have never been accused of enjoying privileges because of my funding success, despite, for example, being responsible for more than 25 per cent of the entire research funding received by Trent University; an institution with multiple hundreds of faculty members such as myself.
It is therefore somewhat odious to be so accused, but I shall not demand an apology from Mr Bhulai.
Instead, I encourage him, as I have multiple others at the University of Guyana, to continue to fulfil the pivotal roles they have provided to so many students over the years, and to partner with the IAST to provide much needed research innovation to our growing country.
Yours sincerely,
Suresh Narine
Director, IAST