Lenox Shuman, the President, UG and leadership failure
I met with Lenox Shuman, at his request, last week. A modest man, with a modest office and an equally modest campaign director who has the largest sense of humour I have seen in a politician, Shuman was impressive.
There is no question in my mind with the lack of productivity in Granger’s leadership as manifested in his failure to move UG into the modern age, I believe the time has come for there to be power-sharing in some form or the other, and leaders like Shuman should be part of the arrangement.
I remind readers of my column of Sunday, January 13, 2019, captioned, “My vote for Granger depends on his action on UG.” I penned that headline because I was impressed with Granger’s reaction to the no-confidence imbroglio after his meeting with the Opposition Leader. Unlike the semantic vulgarities spewing from the mouths of his colleagues in the PNC and the AFC, Granger evaded such grammatical ugliness and advised that the leaders from the PPP and APNU meet GECOM to decide on the state of election readiness.
From that meeting, Granger showed the quality of nationalist concern for his country. He could have repeated the morbid vocabulary of his Cabinet colleagues, but he did not. I thought such a man deserves my vote, even though I am inclined to allow my vote to generate a configuration of power that would end the winner-take-all mentality of the PPP and PNC. Put another way, voting for one of the three new parties – Federal United, ANUG and Lenox Shuman’s Liberal and Justice Party.
After seeing and reading about the continued failure of UG under Granger’s presidency, and his government’s refusal to order a forensic audit of UG – of the new regime at Turkeyen with so many high-powered administrators, I have decided that Granger is not the man to lead this country into the future. I have always spoken what is on and inside my mind freely and fearlessly.
I am doing so now by asserting my belief that David Granger is not the right politician to help shape a future for Guyana. He doesn’t possess leadership qualities. Obviously given the empty barrel in the PNC, Granger remains the PNC’s best choice. He is not Guyana’s best choice.
I will reproduce a section from an email from one of the persons that fought the PPP’s extremist control of UG and who was one of the figures that birthed the protest movement at UG after my contract termination.
I will not identify the composer for obvious reasons. I reproduce part of this email because it is an indictment of Granger’s leadership. These things break my heart when I see them from persons who deserve to be involved in shaping their country’s physiology for a bigger, brighter and better future.
Here is the email, “So UG has introduced austerity measures from Feb 1, 2019. Seriously, is anyone surprised that the institution is broke? After all the wastage of monies on:
a. intimate dinner parties, talks and lectures at high priced hotels, gilded invitations sent to the privileged elites to attend said events and numerous promotional banners to inform the rest a we bout the events,
b. ‘renaissance’ activities in metropolitan cities where large teams are dispatched to do what only God knows (and maybe not even God knows).
c. first class flights to far flung locations and what seems like weekly flights back ‘home with daily per diems increased to that granted to the nation’s president and his ministers.
d. hiring of friends and colleagues without going through established application and hiring procedures from overseas to head newly created institutes and centres and schools
e. bloating the administration with high priced mid level officers – all without TORs and job descriptions presented to the relevant bodies –
f. paying senior administration whose earnings are quoted in US dollars and whose salaries were determined by Council and should only be revised by Council – the same salary increases given to staff on starvation wages
g. I could go on and on and on but I’m sure you’ve gotten the message.”
When I read these things, and when I think of Granger’s leadership failure and after meeting Lenox Shuman, my mind is made up. We have to have an arrangement that will save this country from one-party control over policy-making.
I am saying with inflexibility, I am voting for one of the three parties listed above. I liked what I heard from Shuman. He has no baggage, so I could harbour no suspicion. I left Shuman giving him a blank cheque to use my name in his election campaign.
