Dr. Steve Surujbally reflects

“I KNEW, even as a child, I wanted to become a vet,” Dr. Steve Surujbally told the Pepperpot Magazine. “Some people make jokes sometimes and say that if you can’t become a doctor, you become a vet; but that surely wasn’t the case for me. I wanted always to be a vet.”

In Guyana, Dr. Surujbally might be more readily known for the important role he played as the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). But of equal importance, is his role as a veterinarian — which he started 50 years ago, in 1969.

It might sound schmaltzy, but as a little boy of just six years old, Dr. Surujbally had a six-month-old puppy that was a victim of a car accident and basically died in his hands. You could say that maybe that was when his urge to become a vet was birthed.

“I didn’t think I would have the emotional capability to handle the situation if a human patient were to die. I thought that it would be less traumatic if an animal died in spite of veterinary intervention,” he explained. And so, in 1962, he began studying Veterinary Science at the prestigious University of Leipzig in Germany. He achieved his Bachelor’s Degree in Veterinary Medicine there, and later his Master’s and Doctoral Degrees; he later on to be a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow on the Fulbright Scholarship programme.

The beginning
Chronicling his development in ‘vet science,’ the vet shared that after leaving Germany, he proceeded to Zambia where he began ranching cattle — about 5,000 head of cattle on about 60,000 acres to be more precise — for a parastatal company. Later, he engaged in multidimensional research on various aspects of livestock management and wildlife production systems.

Though he left these shores to study in Germany and practise his skills in Africa, he felt that after nine years in Europe and five years working in Central Africa, it was his patriotic duty to return to Guyana and contribute to the country’s development — in every way he possibly could.

“After 14 years out of Guyana, I came back home,” he reflected, adding that at the time he wanted to switch his profession from veterinary science to the Foreign Service.

This switch wasn’t in the cards for him, however. “President Forbes Burnham made it clear that there was, at the time, a lot of money in the national coffers because of the soaring sugar prices, and he wanted relevant, sustainable, agricultural developmental projects to be embarked upon,” Surujbally related.

Getting settled back home
Consequently, he joined the newly formed Livestock Development Company (LIDCO), firstly as an executive director then later, as the Manager of the Georgetown milk plant — an important arm of LIDCO. Iincidentally, the Managing-Director of LIDCO, at the time, was Mr. Noel Holder, the current Minister of Agriculture.

Dr. Surujbally shared that in those days, Guyana was well on its way to be self-sufficient in beef, chicken, fish, pork, mutton and eggs, but not milk.

“We were just producing only 2.8 million gallons of milk yearly and the country needed 15 million gallons,” he related. The shortfall was imported. As such, he suggested to the then Vice- president of Production and Minister of Agriculture, Mr Hugh Desmond Hoyte, that it would be a “good idea” to make Guyana self-sufficient in milk too. It did not take much convincing and in 1984, the National Dairy Development Programme was developed under his leadership.

The support for this idea was tremendous. This programme was going quite well and Guyana was on track to be self-sufficient in another two decades or so.

“In the livestock subsector, I didn’t get to make the country self-sufficient in milk and that, to this day, I feel a sense of failure,” Dr. Surujbally said almost disheartened, but contended, “Others will do it, however. The current thrust could ensure self-sufficiency in milk and other dairy products, as well as beef exports.”

To this day, however, Dr. Sujubally has worked with 22 Ministers of Agriculture and has undoubtedly contributed to much national development in this sector.

A great achievement among his contributions was his work in getting the country free of the ‘Foot and Mouth’ Disease(FMD), so that beef could be exported. This particular disease is a severe, highly contagious viral disease of cattle and swine. It also affects sheep, goats, deer, and other cloven-hoofed ruminants.

“The work to get the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) certification, initially met with some opposition, but within three years (in 2001) Guyana was officially recognised as an FMD- free country, thusly giving us the clearance to export beef,” Dr. Surujbally shared proudly. This was really one of the stellar moments in his long career.

In 2001, former President Desmond Hoyte proposed Dr. Surujbally for the position of Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). The then President, Bharrat Jagdeo selected Dr. Surujbally’s name from the submitted list. And so, for the next almost 16 years, he was at the helm of the elections body.

But not for a second did that stop his work with the animals. In fact, at no point did he ever stop helping animals.

“Even when I was at GECOM, I still found some time to be involved in animal welfare and curative practice — gratis,” he shared. “And no farmer could say I charged them any money for looking after their animals, whether doing a major surgery or healing their animals.” That was his way of “paying back” for the opportunities presented to him throughout his life.

During the GECOM years, obviously, there was never enough time; but if an emergency was presented, he did find the time to perform a life-saving surgery.

He also has several peer-reviewed publications to his name, and has presented many papers at International fora, not lastly on the subject of “Veterinary Ethics.” For many decades, columns in the newspapers and his long-standing ‘Vet and your Pet’ radio programmes were aimed at companion animal owners and caregivers.

Awards and Achievements

And of course, he garnered many awards along his journey.

“There were also many awards that came in from all parts of the world that I am proud of,” he shared. Among his accolades, the Caribbean Veterinary Medical Association bestowed upon him the Distinguished Award “in appreciation of the many years of exceptional contribution to the Caribbean Veterinary profession.”

Notably, he received the Golden Arrow of Achievement, one of Guyana’s national awards, in 1996.

He has also been Guyana’s representative, inter alia, for many years at the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), which is the World Organisation for Animal Health, and at the South American Commission for the Fight against Foot and Mouth Disease (COSALFA).

Farther afield, GECOM, under Dr. Surubally’s leadership, was accredited in Mozambique in 2015 with the award of the Best Managed Electoral Body of a select group by the London-based International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS). Only recently, the “Economist” magazine, in an article about “Failed Democracies,” credited Guyana’s electoral processes with a mark of 9.2 on a scale of 1-10. “That made me very proud,” he said.

Dr. Surujbally has also worked instrumentally with the Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA). And to top it all off, he is an avid tennis player– even to this day.

“It’s this commitment I have in everything I do,” he said. “It’s either you like your job or you don’t like your job. You have to possess that resolute perseverance to your objective.” For anyone wishing to pursue a profession in Veterinary Science, or any profession for that matter, he stressed that this tenacity of purpose is key.

When asked how he finds the time to be involved in so many activities, he simply answered by saying, “One just sleeps less.” And without a doubt, impacting his journey so far, was the unrelenting support he receives from his wife, Nisa Surujbally.

“She, of course, is a star in her own right,” he underscored. “She was involved in Animal Agriculture too; that’s how we met.”

Nisa was head of the livestock sector at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and became an Executive Director for Marketing at GuySuCo. Later, she joined the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), where she became the Programme Manager for Agriculture and Industry.

“I can say, without contradiction, that I would have never succeeded in any way or in anything for the many years we have been together if it were not for her,” he affirmed.

With 50 years already in the bag, he quipped that it was evident that he will be immersed in Veterinary Science and working with animals until the day he dies.

In the meantime, he hopes to write a book, which would potentially be a digest of all the things he has written in his columns over the years, as a Pet Owner’s Handbook and Guide.

“I want to also think about writing about those 15-plus years and four elections, while I was (GECOM) chairman, for historical purposes,” he said.