The Diocletian option

Editorial
Stabroek News
November 21, 1999


At the age of fifty-nine, Diocletian, ruler of the classical world's most extensive empire, abdicated the imperial throne and went to cultivate his garden. The devotion and vigour which he had once invested in administering Rome and its numerous provinces, he now invested in growing cabbages. Nor would he be seduced into resuming office; when invited to do so he was recorded as having said that if they could only see the cabbages he had grown with his own hands they would not urge him to relinquish happiness in favour of the pursuit of power.

In the tranquillity of his retreat, he was also fond of reminiscing on what might now be called the problems of administration. Ruminating on how secluded a ruler was from the people by virtue of "his exalted dignity," he remarked that as a consequence he was limited to seeing through the eyes of his ministers. Office, he confided, was conferred on vice and weakness, and the most virtuous and deserving among his subjects were "disgraced."

Third century Rome and the Republic of Guyana, are light years apart in every conceivable way, but there are still some truths about the exercise of power which are enduring in nature. Presidents as much as kings are to a greater or lesser degree dependent for their perceptions and analyses of a situation on their ministers, and the quality of their administration will be partly determined by the quality of those whom they appoint to high office. It must be said that ministers in turn cannot function effectively unless they too have people of ability working for them, and unless they operate within a coherent institutional framework. If Diocletian's problem was officials who were weak and subject to vices, Guyana's is officials whose level of competence does not meet up to what the job description demands.

And now we hear that the Public Service is being restructured, and that ten new Permanent Secretaries have been appointed. The public, said President Jagdeo at a press conference on Friday, could expect more effective and efficient functioning of the ministries affected, and that the changes would "bring renewed vigour and talent to the work of government."

With such a statement of unbridled optimism one feels constrained to ask how it is that the President believes that dramatic benefits will issue from 'restructuring' the highest level of the civil service when the Cabinet is left totally unreconstructed. If those who give direction to the ministries and who are ultimately responsible for framing policy have not brought "vigour and talent" to the work of government in eight years, are they really going to do it now?

To be sure, there have been two new ministerial appointments technically speaking: one a Minister of Trade, and the other a Minister of Finance. The last-named of these is clearly not going to enjoy full powers since the President is to retain oversight of his portfolio. For a whole variety of reasons which hardly require elaboration, this is a less than satisfactory arrangement. As it is, therefore, the Cabinet continues almost unchanged.

What has to be recognized is that the country is in a crisis where human resources are concerned. Even if the new PS's are the most brilliant administrators in the world, they do not have sufficient numbers of able personnel at their disposal to make the ministries they run truly efficient. And, as stated above, they do not have bosses in many cases who have demonstrated any capacity to manage, inspire, or cope with policy issues. The country is not going anywhere unless it succeeds in recruiting some talent at all levels, and it will not be able to recruit that talent if the main qualification for appointment to Cabinet remains one of party loyalty, and anyone of competence outside the fold is treated with suspicion.

Let the President go for the Diocletian option and in a purely metaphorical sense send some ministers to cultivate cabbages. He has to start with reshuffling his Cabinet before he moves to restructuring the Public Service.


A © page from:
Guyana: Land of Six Peoples