I wrote before on this matter on Tuesday February 17, 2009, which was carried in the press because I felt that the government and President Jagdeo were unjustifiably cast in a bad light. The accusations being, that they dismissed Dr Ramsammy because he did not toe party lines on the Council and because “…he invoked the wrath of President Jagdeo”. I now ask the question, is the Government guilty of removing Dr Ramsammy as Pro-Chancellor because of political considerations? My answer to that is ‘no’. Secondly, has the President dismissed or caused the dismissal of Dr Ramsammy? Again my answer is no. Those who are claiming political victimisation must not only yell so, but support their statements by facts. These are the issues I am addressing and no extraneous matters by government critics will justify their contentions.

When accusations are being made against the government and the Head of State for being unfair to a great Guyanese patriot, then the records need to be set right. I thought my letter previously issued on this matter would have brought the issue to an end and we would not have had to continue this discourse. I am not happy with its continuation but I will attempt finally to delve into this matter a little more for the benefit of clearing the attempt to tarnish the image of the Head of State and the Government by the unsubstantiated accusations.

I do understand that when we see someone as a hero and he is perceived to be hurt or being aggrieved by another person, we drop our guard and become emotional and level all sorts of accusations on the person at the other side of the fence.

Now, here is the picture. Dr Ramsammy caused the payment of a substantial increase in Salary to be made to the Bursar of the University of Guyana around 1999. That salary adjustment made the Bursar pay to be higher than that of the Registrar, Professors on campus, and even the Vice Chancellor. In short, the Bursar became the highest paid officer on campus. Major dissatisfaction arose over that incident culminating in all forms of discontent. Thereafter, senior officers were aggrieved and felt that they could not cooperate or work with any decisions or actions taken by the Council or the Pro Chancellor.

He (Dr Ramsammy) in short, lost the confidence of vast sections on campus and as I said in my previous letter there was hardly a successful Council Meeting. A measured decision had to be made and in this regard it was felt that a change was necessary given the circumstances of this case and the stalemated position at the University of Guyana between the Council and the University of Guyana Administrators.

I asked, what must the government do, fire all the aggrieved professional workers at the university? Is this how industrial relations should be conducted? I leave it for the public to decide.

I must state that because of my admiration for Josh, he had my support throughout and he had the support of other Council Members as I said before. There were a few other issues which I will not deal with. We at Council were however hoping to overcome the difficulties that existed then but they continued for almost a year. The Council became a lame duck body. At the end, a bigger decision had to be made.

I reiterate and hope my friend Freddy, Mr. Daljeet and others will come to the realisation that Josh Ramsammy was not victimised by this administration. The decent thing was done. We stuck by Josh’s side throughout the period of dissatisfaction at the University. Government then named a new Council when Josh’s term expired and a new Pro- Chancellor was elected by the members of Council. Josh was not fired but served his full term. He was not renamed on the Council.

There is nothing more I will say on this matter and for the sake of decency I will not continue this discourse.
NANDA K. GOPAUL