The latest adviser to the president
Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News
January 9, 2007
When I first read Vishnu Bisram's letter about Pandit Prakash Gossai being soon to be appointed as an adviser to the President of Guyana, I was taken aback. As far as I am aware, none of our Presidents ever took the liberty of having a religious and ethnic adviser even though at one time there was an unfounded rumour about the late President Forbes Burnham.
My initial reaction on reading about this impending appointment was whether the President, not being satisfied with his new wardrobe advisers, was trying something new, courting divine wisdom to extricate his government and the country from the many problems that it faces.
I wondered whether now that the IMF and World Bank medicine has proven ineffective, our government had decided to opt for the spiritual solution to our problems. I thought not.
There must be some other explanation as to why this appointment is being made at this time. What is that explanation?
For sometime now the rumour has been hot in the Diaspora that Pandit Prakash Gossai was to take up an appointment as an adviser to the President. If this is true I wish the goodly gentleman all success.
I however have to question why the President of Guyana, a country teeming with religious experts, would in the first place be seeking an adviser on religious and ethnic matters and secondly why he would select someone from New York. I hope Vishnu Bisram can fill in the missing spaces and edify us on why he thinks Mr. Gossai was chosen.
It also would be good to know in advance some of the thoughts and ideas of this gentleman whose outstanding religious and humanitarian work was recently recognised by two Congressmen.
Unlike in the United States, there are no confirmation hearings for senior appointments to the government and therefore there is little opportunity for nominees to be grilled about their philosophy towards particular questions and what plans they would be pursuing if appointed.
The religious and ethnic questions in Guyana are matters of serious examination, and therefore, I am sure that all Guyanese would be keen to learn of some of the ideas that Pandit Prakash Gossai would be bringing to religious and ethnic issues in Guyana during the final term of the Jagdeo presidency.
The appointment of a religious and ethnic adviser is a serious development in Guyanese politics. It is felt by many, not the least of whom is Ravi Dev, that at the heart of our country's problems is the ethnic question.
The general tenor of the President's public pronouncements has however been to downplay the ethnic question and to argue instead that while religion and ethnicity are important, we should all see ourselves as Guyanese. With this impending appointment, are we witnessing a shift in thinking by our President?
Has the President finally come around to appreciating that he cannot dodge the ethnic question and is therefore appointing someone to advise him on how to deal with the ethnic question in Guyana? I rather suspect not.
While I am sure that Pandit Gossai is eminently qualified to hold the position to which it is said he is going to be appointed, I do not sense in anything that has been said publicly by members of the incumbent administration that there is a new thinking within the government on the ethnic question.
Pandit Goassi is certainly someone that the President thinks highly of. For three years now, there have been no national awards in Guyana. Yet as I recall this very person was one of only two persons honoured by the country in recent times.
If therefore the assumption is that there seems not to be any shift in thinking on the part of the government on the ethnic question, it still needs to be asked why is it that the President of Guyana would be appointing a religious and ethnic adviser.
A second more relevant question is why is it that the country needs another adviser? Is this appointment being made on technical merit and/or are there long term political calculations involved?
I suspect that this is a question for debate for the months ahead.
What we do know from the history of Guyana is that the PPP has always allied themselves with key leaders within the Hindu community and this has helped the party to maintain a good standing within the Hindu community.
One of the top Hindu leaders in Guyana, Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud, has for decades been a top leader of the PPP and considered in many circles at one time as being the heir apparent to Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
Pandit Persaud is however no longer a minister of the government. He is no longer part of the PPP's team in the National Assembly. He is aging and therefore the PPP must have considered looking for another Hindu leader to take his place.
Is Pandit Gossai being courted by the PPP? Is his appointment as the religious and ethnic adviser to the President part of his grooming to take the place of Reepu Daman Persaud and so ensure that the PPP is close to one of the country's leading Hindu leaders?
What do you think?