Latest update May 4th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 14, 2008 Editorial
The shock announcement out of Port of Spain on Thursday that that country’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning has been diagnosed with cancer of the kidney has brought once again to the fore the health of our own leaders.
Guyana itself lost two of its sitting Presidents to heart conditions, while another was pushed into premature retirement because of the same condition.
Our first Executive President, Forbes Burnham, died on the operating table while undergoing a surgical procedure to correct a problem with his throat.
Dr. Cheddi Jagan suffered a heart attack in March 1997 from which he never recovered, succumbing at the Walter Reed Medical Hospital in the United States of America.
In the elections that followed in that year, his wife was elected President of Guyana, but she too had a cardiac incident not long after and resigned because of her health.
A number of other political leaders, including Ministers of the government, have either had or are suffering from serious medical conditions which often require treatment overseas.
The health of these persons are not made any easier by the stressful nature of their jobs which place a great demand on their reserves, and leave very little time for things such as exercise and rest.
The government itself is adding to the health woes of its Ministers by the often ad-hoc and reactive nature of governance. There is hardly a week that goes by in which there is not some crisis or the other.
The time, energy and stress of having to be constantly engaged in “ fire-fighting” the many problems that develop within our country is bound to be taking a toll on the health of our leaders, and the citizens must be as concerned about the health of their leaders.
Every nation must value its leaders. The entire nation must be concerned whenever ill-health attacks some public official or politician.
And so at this time, as the Prime Minister of Trinidad departs for Cuba for surgery to address the cancer found growing on one of his kidneys, we must take note of the vulnerability of our leaders to serious health conditions. It should be insisted that all Ministers of the government undergo a detailed medical examination each year.
This not only would seek to forewarn about impending sickness, but would also be economical, since prevention is better than cure, and it is much cheaper for the State to pay for these check-ups rather than having to fork out the millions if the Minister should eventually require treatment for some serious medical condition which could have been predicted through a regular health check-up.
We see this recent shock announcement by Prime Minister Manning as a wake-up call to the leaders of our region to become more concerned about their health.
While their duties often demand long hours on the job, time should be set aside for recreation and exercise, two things that are found to be indispensable to good health.
In addition, with better planning and greater delegation of work and authority, there is likely to be less stress and a reduced workload of emergencies. In short, good governance can aid in improving the health of our Ministers.
We wish the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago all success in his surgery and we hope that he will be fit enough to return to his job very soon.
His dignified handling of the discovery of his health condition is to be admired, and we hope that our leaders in Guyana would be as forthright and as philosophical as the Trinidadian Prime Minister was about his health.
GRA catch EXXON trying to hunch GUYANA over 11 BUS dollars in one shot!!!!
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