Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 19, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
What you are about to read here can easily be verified by just looking back at the tape. I watched the West Indies versus Ireland cricket match and went down into the kitchen to get a sandwich after the West Indies innings was over.
When I came up back, the intermission was still on. The programme showing at the time was “At Home with the President.” An NCN reporter was interviewing President Ramotar at State House. I caught the last few minutes of the programme. This is what I heard President Ramotar say.
He will not intervene in the ongoing crisis at UG because there are established mechanisms that can be used to bring about a resolution. He went on to add that the University of Guyana will soon be one of the best Universities in the world in the bio-diversity progammes it offers. The programme ended with President Ramotar saying that in a few years’ time he will make UG a world class university.
I believe the President said, “The best University in the world” when he referred to the bio-diversity programmes. When I mentioned this to people they say that I must be careful, the President couldn’t say that. They advised me that he probably said “one of the best.” Since I didn’t have access to the tape at the time of writing I will settle for “one of the best” but I strongly believe I heard “the best in the world.”
I would kindly ask those who saw the programme if they can inform me whether it was “the best” or “one of the best”.
Any President is expected to say glowing things about his/her country but those utterances must be framed within the bounds of reason and logic. There are top class Universities right across our border in Brazil that have infrastructural and research facilities that given the state of UG, Guyana will not come near to in decades to come. And this is not to mention the US, India, Germany and Malaysia.
This statement was followed by the President’s assertion that he will make UG a world class University. These words about UG were unfortunate because they came in the midst of a bitter dispute tearing away at the University right at the moment.
In this dispute the bareness of UG is laid bare so it was not the right time for the President to utter what can only be and should be described as irrational ramblings.
It does not take the mind of a erudite scholar to reason that the President’s boast of making UG a world class University was nonsense because any
schoolboy would know there must be an ongoing upward climb by the University to reach world class status. But on the contrary, there has been a steady decline.
The President’s UG statements should be studied in a wider context – the PR nightmares of the PPP. Why would President Ramotar say those things that naturally will bring embarrassment? The whole of Guyana knows UG is in deep trouble with its survival threatened. Why speak on UG?
Why boast that you have the best police force in the world when the population will laugh at you when they hear that? Why refer to the coruscating lights of the city illuminating the nocturnal skyline as in the advertisement Marriott Hotel put out in the 2014 telephone directory when Georgetowners know Georgetown hardly has street lamps?
These are the PR nightmares of the PPP that the best Public Relations expert in the entire world would not be able to extirpate. A good guess is that, as in 2011, the PPP will bring in foreign PR advisors. They didn’t help the PPP’s cause in 2011. The PPP lost a majority and lost 18 months off its fifth term in office.
When you look at those UG ramblings by the President, it is easy to predict that the PR guru won’t succeed. You can put the best director to shape a movie if the acting talent is not there the movie will flap. This is the identical thing with the PPP as the election campaign heats up.
One would like to think that when the foreign PR boys come in they will advise employers at Freedom House that positive campaigning must replace mud-slinging. But could the PPP redeem itself? Does it have the mental shape to take such advice? Could a leopard change its spots? It cannot. So the Guyanese people have to brace themselves for the worst kind of race-baiting and unmitigated stupidities as the election campaign gets into full swing from those who cannot change their spots.
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