A dearth of skills Editorial Stabroek News September 30, 1998 We have to face the reality, and that is that there are probably not enough qualified personnel available to run this country in these high-tech times. The brain-drain continues inexorably, and after six years in office, the Government has failed to attract sufficient skilled manpower to replace it. In fact, the skills deficit is probably worse than it was in 1992. The administration has not helped matters, of course. After years in the wilderness complaining about 'jobs for the boys', political appointments and 'square pegs in round holes', it has opened itself to similar charges. There can be little doubt that the single most important criterion for senior appointment nowadays is loyalty. Competence is a secondary consideration, if it is a consideration at all. Yet here we are on the threshhold of the new millennium, with an economy in crisis, an education system in crisis, administrative structures in crisis, and at a certain level a society in crisis, and there is simply not enough brain-power being brought to bear upon the problem. The truth is that you cannot develop a country if you do not have enough people of competence in key positions. A sufficient number of skilled personnel for the purposes of development is called a critical mass. Little Barbados has a critical mass. Even Suriname, with half our population and an emigration problem to boot, has it. There are other small nations dotted around which have it as well. But Guyana doesn't. Leaving aside all the larger problems which have discouraged qualified Guyanese from returning home, and which have encouraged those who are here to emigrate, the Government has exacerbated the skills shortage as a consequence of its own attitudes. The qualities which served the PPP so well for over thirty years out of office, are no longer appropriate. The tight-knit cadre of party loyalists who kept the faith, and resisted any attempts to divide them did a brilliant job of surviving the abrasive era of the Burnham regime. During the dark years, loyalty was essential if the party was to endure. There are many organizations which could not have outlasted those kinds of conditions, but the PPP emerged in 1992, still a coherent political entity with its leadership intact, and for that, it should be given credit. The problem is that the PPP is no longer running the party, it is running the country. The approach which ensured its survival at one period, has become ante-diluvian at another. Loyalty to a party will not take the country anywhere. Similarly, members of a party who listen only to one another, cannot move the country forward; this is a fast-changing world and any government must be open to new ideas, yet the insulated environment of Freedom House has made it difficult for new ideas to penetrate. Furthermore, despite its profession of devotion to democratic principles, the party has shown an inordinate sensitivity to criticism, confusing it with hostile opposition. People of competence who have something meaningful to say are usually independent minded. What Guyana needs is originality of thought, not sycophancy, and while the administration talks about consultation, and sometimes does consult, it observes the form of dialogue, rather than the substance. Perhaps what has also deterred some competent Guyanese from either remaining or returning, is the fact that at the highest echelons of Government there are people who are themselves unsuited to their posts, and worse, give the impression of being hostile to those with the kinds of skills which might assist them. Modern government requires a level of competence which perhaps was not as essential a century ago. At this point in our history we need administration which emphasizes open-mindedness, recognizes that ideas from outside will not threaten the party structure, and most of all, places value on competence. Political partisanship will not develop the nation; skills will.