No Vote a wake up call

11.DEC.09

Editor: The referendum defeat should be a good wake call to the Prime Minister. In examining where things went wrong, he should not overlook the role of senior administrators and technocrats.{{more}}

The perceived decline of the ULP and the Prime Ministers popularity is also the result of the treatment meted out to teachers and other civil servants by some of his senior administrators and technocrats.

The same way the Prime Minister can campaign the length and breath of this country, he should take time out to visit each Ministry and listen to grievance of civil servants in an atmosphere without any recrimination be his/her superior.

In a situation where there are so many graduates in system, who can all be a Permanent Secretary, Chief Education Officer or Agricultural Officer, why should you have situations where these people behave like they are the repository of knowledge?

They fail to delegate, instead seeking to do everything and in the process achieving very little because of information overload – forgetting everything.

The Prime Minister needs to shake the tree. This should not only be that of representation but some of those hangers -on administrators and technocrats.

Many teachers and civil servants acted as ULP canvassers in the past, but those who are rewarded with very senior positions are those laggards and uppity individuals. So working on behalf of the ULP is working for those oppressors who would never go house to house.

Marc Ramoon