Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 11, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
Here are the names of some of the people as they sat in the Council of the University telling each other I should be dismissed because my academic work was poor. Indra Chanderpaul, who sat in the decision-making body of the highest educational institution in Guyana and did not have a required educational base.
For her to make pronouncement on the academic work of someone who has been to three universities, including one of the best in the world, must be a huge act of asininity
Pulandar Khandai, a former friend. He worked his entire life selling and buying currencies on America Street. He was the person I would visit to change money for my family that was sent from abroad. Nirmal Rekha. Mr. Rekha was investigated in 2005 by the Guyana Revenue Authority for signing more than a hundred bogus duty free letters. A check on the archives of KN and SN would give readers the details of this sordid story.
It is doubtful whether Mr. Rekha can survive an investigation by a new government.
Bibi Shadick. Please forgive my chauvinism in what the next line to follow will say. If I write just one line of academic analysis on philosophy, I doubt this lady can understand it. I can safely say the same for Gail Teixeira.
Finally, Prem Miser. This is a man who worked the past fifteen years in a full time job as a propagandist for the office of the President, yet miraculously calls himself a professor after he says he was awarded such by North Lancashire University, an institution no one has heard above. These then are the people that pronounced on my academic capacity. These are the people that are in control of UG. Not even God can help this country.
Against the backdrop of the legal advice on my dismissal from UG requested by Office of the Ombudsman, it is important for the historical record to publish the sordid dimensions of this event. Prior to my contract termination by the Council of the University, there has never been a single instance where the Council, since the birth of the University in 1963 has fired an academic without a request for such coming from the academic/administrative organs of the University.
For emphasis, let me repeat, except for my case, the Council (previously knows as the Board of Governors) has not terminated any contract on its own, by itself, arising from its own deliberations. This is not how the University has functioned since 1963. Walter Rodney’s employment was rejected when it came in front of the Council sent by the Appointments Committee. Lecturers are fired after the Appointments Committee so request.
The Council of the University does not appoint or dismiss. They endorse such decisions coming from the academic/administrative organs of the University. There isn’t a researcher, no matter how brilliant, who can find one situation where the Council, acting on its own, dismissed an academic staff member. My contract termination remains the only example.
It needs to be said that so restrictive is the power of the Council to hire or fire that if the Council wants an appointment or a dismissal, they will request it from the academic/administrative organs who then will have to do the paper work and present their findings to the Council. Let me repeat for emphasis, my contract was terminated by the Council without even a scintilla of evidence presented to them by any section of the University
It is vital to state here that at that meeting, only the PPP members who sat on the Council voted for my dismissal. And they chose that route because to ask for an enumeration of my status would have stymied their intention because the academic section of the University would have had to make that pronouncement. My research and teaching profile was millions of miles ahead of others. This explains why they never requested an evaluation of my work. This is the water-tight procedure for dismissing lecturer – the lecture must be assessed.
Finally, the lawyers for the Ombudsman would have noticed that I was a legal member of the Council at the time of my dismissal. Yet I was never invited to the meeting that deliberated on my dismissal. The Registrar at the time, Mr. Vincent Alexander who sends out the invitation was requested by the Chancellor, Dr. Compton Bourne not to invite me. I regard Mr. Alexander as a person of integrity and if this matter should further engage the Office of the Ombudsman, or find hearing in the courts, I certainly don’t expect Mr. Alexander to deny that directive from Dr Bourne.
Frederick Kissoon
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 28, 2024
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