Guyanese author and behavioural scientist Dr. Prem Misir has a second book published by world renowned publisher Edwin Mellen Press. The book, Racial Ethnic Imbalance in Guyana Public Bureaucracies: The Tension between Exclusion and Representation, looks at the history of racial division and ethnic discrimination from the colonial times of British Guiana to present day.

This is the first ever book on Guyana empirically analysing, using historically and contemporary data on education, health and allocation of public services, whether and to what extent the Guyanese society is divided along ethnic lines which feed into the political system, fostering the marginalisation of the un/under represented.

Misir, in his book takes a look at poverty and the impact of social and economic programmes and benefits through HIPC initiative. He examines the social construction of race-ethnic conflict and the issues of ethnic dominance, security and alliances. The book also takes a look at Guyana’s education and electoral systems and goes into locally controversial subjects such as power sharing.

In the foreword, Dr. Baris Karapinar describes Dr. Misir as someone who could blend rigorous scholarly analysis with critical insider knowledge about politics, bureaucracy and ethnicity in Guyana. “…this is an exceptional case study on a unique socio-economic and geographical setting.” Karapinar states.

A prolific author, Misir has a number of books published by the University Press of America, A Division of the Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group; the Caribbean Diaspora Press Inc, of Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York; and The Edwin Mellen Press.

Dr. Misir also has quite a number of  papers in several peer-reviewed journals, some of which are: Social and Economic Studies (UWI), The DEP Diplomacy, Strategy and Politics Review (Ministry of External Relations of Brazil/Alexandre de Gusmao Foundation/ International Relations Research Institute),  Scientific Journals International (forthcoming), AIDS Patient Care and STDs, Journal of International and Comparative Education (Great Britain), Journal of Indo Caribbean and Research, Pravasi Sansar (Hindi Journal), Laredo State University Proceedings, TransAfrica Forum.

The book will be launched in Guyana on April 28, 2011, and will be available at research libraries.