Matutinal waves of pessimism

Jun 23, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Last Thursday morning, I attended the stakeholders’ meeting of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) at the Convention Centre. The conference consisted of a presentation by consultant, Lawrence Latchmansingh, on his findings after dialoguing with nineteen organizations that he met with after the ERC had engaged those entities.
It was a morning of pessimism, angst, dispiritedness and sadness. First, the caricature that is the ERC was on full display. These stakeholders’ consultations that the ERC has been having these past three years have become an exasperating affair.
Speaking on behalf of the trade union movement, for the three consecutive years that labour has met with the ERC, only three Commissioners have showed up – Juan Edghill, Peter Willems and Carvil Duncan. As I wrote three times before on this page, not a word was ever uttered by the other two Commissioners.
At the last dialogue, Mr. Duncan merely answered a question on the stipend the TUC President gets for serving in that capacity. One would have thought at the climax of these years of dialogue on Thursday, we would have seen the full Commission.
The masquerade continued – the same three Commissioners showed up to meet with the representatives of nineteen importantly and strategically placed organizations in Guyana. Only Juan Edghill spoke. We started at 10.00 hours and ended at 15.00 hours. In all those hours, the conference heard not a single word from Messrs. Duncan and Willems. Many delegates left there not knowing who these gentlemen were.
This is the ERC for you. The opening session was a disaster. Edghill informed us that the press was only invited for photo shoots and had to leave. I objected strenuously to that. My point was that the function was not an ERC event but a joint meeting of minds and we the stakeholders should decide if the press stays or goes, not Edghill alone. My argument was since there was nothing confidential to be aired we should embrace the instinct of transparent behaviour.
Joining me was Everall Franklin of GAP-ROAR and Coretta Mc Donald of the TUC. I expected Donald Ramotar and Gail Teixeira not to support us, but Sheila Holder sat there throughout the strident complaints of the three of us and said not a word of support. One can only conclude that it was not important enough for her.
Then Ms. Holder did a strange thing. As she was leaving, which was after three quarters of the deliberations had finished, she asked that each delegate be canvassed as to if they wanted the press to be invited. This was hours after the media had left the premises. I hope the AFC explains this to the nation.
Ms. Gail Teixeira’s and Mr. Ramotar’s contribution, in my opinion deepened the pessimism of those present. There was an inflexible attitude of wanting to dominate and the propaganda was in full swing. In my interpretation, they did not succeed in any meaningful way. But their attitudes were large indications of how tragic will be the future of this country.
Ms. Teixeira blamed the parliamentary opposition for the failure of the National Assembly to achieve a two/thirds majority in overhauling the ERC. I knew this was not true and that it was the PPP that was the recalcitrant figure. As Teixeira was mouthing that fiction, Ms. Holder had already opened the door to leave. I rushed out behind her and requested that she address the conference to correct Ms. Teixeira. She did.
Here is what she told the meeting. The restructuring of the ERC is being held up because the opposition wants an organization to be struck off the list of 137 organizations to be consulted before the ERC takes new shape. That single body, headed by Juan Edghill, is named the Intra-Religious Organization which the opposition believes has no locus standi in Guyana.
Ms. Holder opined in her delivery that since all the religious denominations in Guyana are represented in major religious institutions then it makes no sense in the PPP holding up the work of the ERC by its insistence of wanting Edghill’s entity. If you listened to Teixeira, you would not have known that this was the stumbling bock
Before he left, Donald Ramotar told the conference that the ERC’s mandate should include investigating the press for printing materials that have racial overtones. I turned to him and asked him why the press only and not other bodies like the Cabinet and the Government. I then inquired if he had the Chronicle in mind. He calmly watched me and said no.

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Matutinal waves of pessimism

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