Evaluating high-priced rugs is a lot like evaluating prison security

Dear Editor,
A former Commissioner of Police doing immigration. A former investment banker on an ambassadorship in India. These men are working out of their areas of training and expertise.
Running a Government is about recruiting skilled and competent people. Bureaucracies must be managed to deliver goods and services efficiently. All sound political and management principles we had learnt and inherited from the British colonial masters have been thrown out the window. And, we as a nation became bungling and backward.
I am in New Delhi purchasing rugs. The salesman threw out one and said price is 00; another 00; and yet another 00. The cheapest looked prettier and more aesthetic to my eyes. I have no idea how to evaluate rugs. The salesman said to look under the rug for stitches per square inch, the more stiches the more expensive.
Minister Ramjattan is touring Camp Street Prison and Lusignan’s improvised holding facility. Knowing nothing about prison control and safety – like me knowing nothing about rugs – Ramjattan simply did not know what the hell he was looking at. A disaster was waiting to happen, but he could not see it. He could have asked his subordinates simple questions and he would have gotten answers to help him realise the folly of housing dangerous criminals in a cow pasture without armed guards watching over them 24 hours a day.
Some managers ask a lot of questions; they are “a quick study” and they make good managerial decisions. Some folks are too lazy. They will screw up every time.
The very definition of Guyanese politics works against competency. You were a good organiser, loyal to the party – but have no formal or technical education or training – and you will get a ministerial job. This nation called Guyana will pay a huge price for this crazy politics.
By the way, the real price for the 00 price-tagged rug was 00. Like me a tourist waiting to be scammed, Ramjattan, a Cabinet Minister waiting to be exposed as a square peg neatly fitted in a round hole.

Sincerely,
Mike Persaud