17 YEARS OF PPP INEPTITUDE, INCOMPETENCE, CORRUPTION AND DESTRUCTION (Part II)

Dec 27, 2009 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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HAPPY NEW YEAR

The PNCR extends Seasons Greetings to all Guyanese and expresses the hope that as a Nation we will overcome the many challenges that face our Nation.

On December 6, 2009, the PNCR column featured an article under the caption, “17 YEARS OF PPP INEPTITUDE, INCOMPETENCE, CORRUPTION AND DESTRUCTION (Part I)”. That article commenced an assessment of our achievements, successes or failures over the past year to determine the most appropriate course of action for the New Year 2010.

That review illustrated that the promised lean and clean Government became a top-heavy bureaucracy, characterised by the largest Cabinet in the history of Guyana; that the cleanness was manifested in a lack of transparency, lack of accountability, discrimination, corruption and a plethora of scandals; the continued failure of the Jagdeo Administration to observe the rule of law; the political interference and manipulation of the Judiciary; harassment and victimisation of all opponents, including the media; the assault on the trade union movement and workers generally; lack of tolerance for differing opinions, the arrogance, vindictiveness and high-handed behaviour by successive Presidents; the decline in Guyana’s economy; and, the political control of the state media.

These matters have all constituted part of a related course of conduct by the PPP/C Administration since they came to Office in 1992. As we prepare to welcome the New Year 2010, it may be fitting to conclude that column on the 17 years of the PPP, if only to strengthen our resolve that CHANGE MUST COME if Guyana is to survive in 2010.

PROPAGANDA CANNOT ERASE THE FACTS

The promised inquiry by President Jagdeo into the torture of the 14-year-old while in police custody at Leonora Police Station faded into the horizon as new conditionalities were introduced daily.

In effect, the announcement by President Jagdeo for the appointment of an Inquiry was an obvious deception.  What has in fact happened is that the PPP/C and the Commissioner used the circumstances to promote a senior police officer who was involved in such acts in the past as Deputy Head of the Black Clothes Squad, which was accused of hundreds of extra judicial executions of young Guyanese mainly of African descent.

This latest torture incident, that awakened the conscience of the nation, occurred at a time when the Joint Opposition Parties had made good on their undertaking to prepare a Dossier to detail the Human Rights abuses of the PPP. That Dossier has now been widely circulated both locally and internationally.

The response of the Jagdeo Administration was the contention that the information outlined therein is inaccurate. If indeed the PPP/C is certain of its declared position then there should be no hesitation in heeding the call for an international inquiry. Surely, this would vindicate the regime from all the allegations.

This type of propaganda has become a trademark of the Administration’s response.

The publication, however, motivated many Guyanese to provide additional information that had been omitted from the Dossier. In this regard, the Kaieteur News and all others must be complimented for the supplementary information.

The Dossier was not intended to replace an inquiry, but, rather, to make the case for such an inquiry to be held. The evidence to support the contentions therein would be left for witnesses to provide to the Inquiry when established. No amount of criticism or propaganda therefore could diminish the need for such an Inquiry.

2010 must be a year of accelerated activity by all Guyanese to ensure that justice is served and closure can be brought to the lives of the affected family members of the victims. President Jagdeo should be warned that no amount of international publicity on the protection of the environment or on the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) would spare any one in his Government from accounting for the misdeeds of Office; neither will he be spared of accounting for his role in those atrocities.

2010 must, indeed, be a year of accelerated activity on this front.

2009 Another year of ORGANISED ASSAULT ON WORKERS & THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT:

The year 2009 will be marked as another year of unmitigated assault on organised labour and the working class. The Administration has pursued this objective with a vengeance matched only by their misuse of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to go after private sector enterprises that refuse to toe the political line.

The unilateral cessation of the check off system for union dues from public servants on behalf of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the abandonment of collective bargaining, in violation of ILO conventions, to which Guyana is a signatory, are well known. The wilful and malicious withholding of subventions approved by the Parliament for the Critchlow Labour College, followed by the refusal to make any further allocations, are indicative of the frontal attack by the PPP/C Administration in pursuing its strategic objective of destroying the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC).

That RUSAL was permitted to carry on their internationally known anti workers strategy in Guyana is another signal for organised labour to take action.

The Government must honour the Collective Labour Agreement and the Laws of Guyana. Industrial relations norms and practices must be observed and the unlawfully and vindictively dismissed workers must be reinstated. 

The struggle of sugar workers must also continue.  The recent calamity of workers at Kwakwani, Berbice, however, has served to illustrate that 2010 must also be a year for the workers struggle to be intensified.

ESCALATING CRIME & THE SECURITY SECTOR:

Nothing defines the PPP/C Administration more clearly than the out of control criminal activities, which have resulted from its inability to reform the security forces and to ensure that it is properly manned and led. The Administration has chosen to ignore the recommendations of the Simmons Report and that of the Disciplined Forces Commission.

Instead of seeking legal means of bringing the crime spree between 2002 and 2005 under control, the PPP/C Administration decided to hitch its star to a well-known self-confessed drug dealer. The facts are now well known as emerged from the trials in New York.

Of significance in 2009, however, is the loss of millions of dollars from the British for assistance in the security sector.

Contrary to the propaganda churned out from the Office of the President, the cancellation of the one trillion, five hundred and sixty eight million Guyana dollars (G$1,568,000,000) security sector project by the British was clearly the result of bad faith on the part of the Jagdeo Administration, its failure to ensure genuine stakeholder consultation as agreed, its failure to ensure genuine Parliamentary oversight and its refusal to agree to a management model that would ensure transparency in the application of the funds by the donor.

The regime, as they have done on several previous occasions with donor funds, having secured the British loan in principle, sought every means to avoid their obligations and to be in a position to misuse those funds without any real oversight.

The PPP ensured that the established Parliamentary Committee was restricted in its role to only receiving reports. They then stubbornly resisted any arrangement where the donor could verify that the funds were being spent in the manner approved. It is evident that the British were not hoodwinked.

Another important agreement will feature in 2010. It is to be hoped that the Administration has learnt from the 2009 experiences as they prepare to reap the alleged benefits from the Norway/Guyana Climate Change Agreement.

POLITICAL VENDATTAS & LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS

The year 2009 also marked the slow march to the reform of the Local Government system. The nation was privy to the abandonment of the Task Force on Local Government and the unilateral passage of legislation designed to undermine the major recommendations for Local Government Reform.

As if not satisfied, the Government demonstrated its true intentions in the manner in which they dealt with the Local Government bodies, notably, the Georgetown City Council.

It is fortunate that the Council rejected the latest illegal attempt by the PPP/C to take control of the Georgetown City Council through the establishment of an implementation Committee. The obvious intention was to make the elected City Council, indeed obsolete, by giving the hand picked Committee all the power to make and implement decisions without approval or involvement of the elected Council.

This latest move is in breach of the Local Government Law and must be resisted by all councillors until local Government elections are held.

The PPP, having recognised that it could not legally disband the Council without a specific inquiry recommending such action, sought to implement their desired Interim Management Committee through this new mechanism.

The PNCR rejected this illegality and will continue to do so. The year 2010 must therefore be the year of implementation of the Local Government Reform.

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