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Carl Greenidge a victim of PPPC vindictiveness

Jan 05, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
Systematically this government has weakened the public servants, bullied the teachers, rendered penniless the TUC, conspired with RUSAL to de-unionise the bauxite workers, sidelined GAWU, abuseds itstheir  own Komal Chand and Navin Chandarapal as they do their critic Lincoln Lewis, and harasses the likes of Mark Benschop and Freddie Kissoon.
Forestry expert Dr. Janette Bulkan lost an engagement with the World Bank at the request of the government. Now the government has extended its reach to the architect of the Economic Recovery Programme, former Minister of Finance and renowned economist and international public servant, Mr. Carl Greenidge.
And what cardinal sin prompted the sinister approach by Minister of no-Labour, Manzoor Nadir, to write the Secretary General of the CARICOM Secretariat with the veiled request that Greenidge be sacked?
It is these words spoken at the funeral service for Winston Murray, former chairman of the PNC-R: “I share Winston’s belief that notwithstanding the trauma of the last few decades Guyana can, with visionary leadership, be lifted from this nightmare in which it finds itself.” Any reasonable interpretation of these words would seem as much a criticism of Greenidge’s PNC-R as it is of the PPP/C. But to Jagdeo and Nadir, this is treasonable, a cause for suspension of Greenidge’s constitutional right to work. Yet, even the government might not miss the irony that its response is evidence of the nightmare of which Greenidge spoke!!
For the declining number of groups and individuals who are yet to experience the vindictiveness of Jagdeo and company – whether in the form of sharp public rebukes, unlawful arrest and detention, loss of economic opportunities, collective punishment and even attacks by unknown persons – the message is as chilling as it is clear: the reach of the government goes beyond Guyana, its intolerance boundless. So will these groups and individuals be silent because no one has yet come for them?
Only the bullies can benefit from the silence and inaction from the PNC-R, Greenidge’s party, that he served so faithfully and with such distinction for many years; the Winston Murray Support Group which asked him to speak at Murray’s funeral; professional and ordinary Guyanese, and Greenidge’s colleagues in CARICOM. Collectively they are sends a frighteningly ominous signal that they too are weak or mortally afraid.
In the process, the question is inevitably raised whether the constitutional guarantee of a right to work, to hold and to express opinions and whether the Charter of Civil Society for the Caribbean Community requiring member states to respect the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual including “freedom of conscience, of expression …..” are strong commitments or meaningless platitudes.
2011 is shaping up as a defining year for Guyana, one in which silence is the worst option.
Christopher Ram

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