Who gave Ramesh Dookoo that advice?

May 31, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The business community in this country has to rein in Mr. Ramesh Dookoo, chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) if he did not have a mandate to make some of the extreme, weird and ignorant pronouncements he has made from time to time.
I assume that the Private Sector Commission is made of an executive committee of which Dookoo simply has won vote. When Dookoo puts his foot in his mouth does he speak for the Private Sector Commission? If that is the case then the Private Sector Commission is a pathetic body not worthy of the respect of the Guyanese citizenry.
Mr. Dookoo was quoted as saying that the Private Sector Commission was in support of the order the Ministry of Works brought to the Stabroek Market Square.
What order is Dookoo talking about? The Ministry brought fascism to the site. If Dookoo would take some time off from his perennial support of the PPP to read about international affairs, he would know THAT the mistreatment of a vendor caused the Tunisian revolution a couple of months ago.
Mr. Dookoo could boldly make his “order” statement because the nation of Guyana consists of sheep. Only in Guyana, I repeat, only in Guyana could a government direct the demolition of the stalls over three hundred poor vendors and get away with it
Next, Mr. Dookoo is cited in this newspaper as saying that the Private Sector Commission recognizes the Ethnic Relations Commission. Was Mr. Dookoo speaking on his own behalf? If not, did he have a mandate to say so? Assuming it was not another example of Dookoo putting his foot in his mouth, did the PSC sought advice from its lawyers.
The three parliamentary parties have concluded that the ERC constitutional mandate has expired and needs to be prolonged by a two thirds endorsement of Parliament.
This writer has been told that at one of its statutory meetings, the Elections Commission debated the decision to seek legal advice on the current status of the ERC. ACDA, the WPA and other organizations do not accept the present status of the ERC. This writer has officially asked the Academic Board of the University of Guyana to acquire a legal opinion on the constitutionality of the ERC.
My request to the Academic Board arose out of a complaint the ERC forwarded to UG on discrimination in the acceptance of applicants to the law department.
The University forcefully dealt with the ERC by asserting the integrity of its admission criteria. The position I put to the Academic Board is that it should not respond to future inquiries from the ERC until the University has ascertained the legal existence of that body.
I am of the opinion that my position was accepted therefore the University should not entertain further questions on any aspect of its administration until the ERC constitutional integrity is verified Mr. Dookoo and the Private Sector Commission cannot deny that the heated controversies that continue to swirl around the ERC.
I hold to the inflexible position that the ERC is a rogue organization. Funded by the UNDP last year to carry out a survey among national organizations and institutions on how they see the ERC performing its mandate, the findings were never published. Conducted by consultant, Mr. Lawrence Latchmansingh, the report paints an embarrassing portrait of the ERC.
Dookoo and his PSC acolytes should get hold of a copy before they open their mouths.
The ERC is a shamelessly partisan organization that has not had a full complement of its statutory commissioners the past four years.
As a consequence of this, it has not held a statutory meeting the past four years. Repeated requests to its chairman, Bishop Juan Edghill, to publicly cite a date of such a confabulation and the names of the attending commissioners have been ignored. Yet this very gentleman has unbounded energy in replying to the critics of the ERC but to date he cannot name the ERC commissioners.
Mr. Dookoo’s sycophantic endorsement of the ERC is in keeping with his shameless partisan politics. In a country where the central government practices discrimination against its own citizens, the ERC role is to intimidate persons who want to speak about such violations.
Mr. Dookoo’s role is to preserve that state of affairs. It was Mr. Robert Corbin who said that he didn’t go to court over the illegal position of the ERC because the hearing will take forever. With an national election pending and the devious role the ERC will play in that election, he better visit the High Court as soon as today.

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Who gave Ramesh Dookoo that advice?

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