Dear Editor,
I WRITE with reference to a piece by H. Singh under the title, “No separation of administration from politics under PPP government” (KN, 6/9, 2023). The letter assumes an academic tone but does not come remotely close to even a first-year level of scholarly articulation. Yet, nothing seems to be in the way of H. Singh waxing professorial in his clumsy, school-boyish assertion that the PPP/C and APNU are cut from the same cloth.

What is also shocking is that KN continues to publish this barley literate nonsense. Here are examples of H. Singh’s ‘brilliant analysis’ (a) “The blurring of ‘politics’ and ‘policy’ has cause to the advocations to dismiss ‘partisan politics’ rather than “policy politics. The importance of neutrality in politics and policy are established within the politics-administration dichotomy;” (2) “Woodrow Wilson’s model created one of the first concepts of checks and balances, which is one of the most predominant systems of democratic accountability used to shape the United States government,” (3) “By employing the elite philosophical leaders to improve, shape, condition and sway public opinion, politics-administration dichotomy, if carried out in an unselfish manner leaves little to no room for error.” May God help us all.

H. Singh is under the mistaken belief that Woodrow Wilson created the three branches of government in the US. He is unaware of something called the Unites States constitution where the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government are clearly delineated. H. Singh stumbled on an article by Wilson, and without knowing anything else about the 28th President of the United States, assumed the posture of a research scholar. Is H. Singh, for instance, aware that Wilson was a segregationist steeped in Southern Jim Crow culture? Is H. Singh aware that Wilson voted against the Japanese proposal that all human beings are equal regardless of race? The vote took place at the same Versailles Conference after WWI where Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points Plan. The Plan allowed the Europeans to keep their ill begotten colonial positions!

Is H. Singh aware that in 1913 when Wilson became president, he ordered the separation of Black and White workers in the United States civil service?
Is H Singh aware that President Wilson’s segregation policy of workers by race became one of the structural pillars of self-generating income inequality in the United States because Black workers were pushed into lower paid occupations?

If H. Singh is aware of all these things as a “Woodrow Wilson” ‘scholar’, then why is he recommending that Guyana takes lessons from that president? He does not know anything about public administration or about Wilson, but to sound credible in his baseless criticism, he simply decided to dress up in academic garb and spew trash against the PPP/C.

Editor, criticism of the PPP/C or any political party is fair game. But shouldn’t there be a minimum standard for the sake of the paper’s own integrity? Surely that must matter. I have a PhD in Political Science, taught at the university level for 37 years, published with some of the most prestigious presses in the world, and yet you publish my letters only occasionally.

Yet, you publish something as comical, nay, disgraceful as the letter under consideration here only because it is aimed against the PPP. In some situations, a little education is bad for the individual. That is certainly the case for H. Singh with regards to his nonsense on Wilson. Please know that what is in our newspapers is a reflection on all of us. The world is watching.

Sincerely,
Dr. Randolph (Randy) Persaud