Hinds, Samuel A.

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1994
SAMUEL A. HINDS
to be Doctor of Science

We are honored today to welcome back to Fredericton a graduate of this university who has achieved one of his country's highest offices. Samuel Hinds is Prime Minister of Guyana, the small South American republic that is one of the world's leading producers of bauxite.

Most of his career was spent outside of politics. He came to UNB in the 1960s, entered fully into the life of the residence system, made lasting friends with whom he still corresponds, and gained a reputation for being disciplined and highly organized as a student and affable and warm-hearted as a person. He took Chemical Engineering here and he is still considered one of the brightest students ever to have graduated from that program. He was awarded prizes for his outstanding performance by the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Chemical Institute of Canada. Upon his graduation in 1967, he returned to his native country to work in the aluminum industry as a process engineer. When the ALCAN subsidiary was nationalized, he remained with the company and eventually advanced to the position of Divisional Superintendent for Product Quality, Research and Development.

For twenty-five years, Mr. Hinds was successful as an engineer, scientist, and company representative, travelling round the world to establish connections with like-minded professionals in conferences, conventions, and professional organizations. Yet throughout this time, he was troubled by political structures that seemed constantly to deny freedom and opportunity to ordinary people. He had once happily seen the end of colonialism, but then sadly saw it replaced by a government far more repressive, perpetuating itself through rigged elections and the suppression of opposition.

After some particularly difficult personal experiences in the 1980s, Samuel Hinds decided that he must speak out. He gave his first political speech in 1990. Within weeks he had joined the group called Guyanese Action for Reform and Democracy, eventually became its chairman, and then agreed to stand for election as a candidate of the Peoples' Progressive Party. His party was successful and in 1992, he became the prime minister.

Samuel Hinds describes himself as a "conservative revolutionary." The term sums up his commitment to democratic processes, social reform, and personal freedom and carefully draws the line between himself and those he calls "blind and senseless revolutionaries." He remembers his grandfather, "an old parson without income in a poor rural area," who undoubtedly shaped the contours of his thought. When his country, like so many other small nations, got drawn into the morass of the Cold War, and when the local government became more oppressive than its colonial predecessor, he took refuge in his work. He came to protest only slowly, and then in a measured, constructive way. With an engineer's frame of analysis, he has always sought what is practical and realistic, while his life experience has taught him to be patient and forgiving of those who differ from him.

There are few leaders in the world today who carry themselves with more becoming modesty, or who carry out their duties with less pretentiousness or more humanity. We would like to think that UNB contributed in whatever small way to making him what he is today. It is with great pride that we recognize his distinguished achievements.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3