It is not Dev’s domain to determine the behaviour/strategy I enlist

Jul 17, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Reference is made to Ravi Dev’s July 15, 2012 column “Anger issues.”
To his remark as to what my style would achieve, while said achievements benefit him, they also pose a threat to the agenda he currently pursues.  Consequently, some achievements are herein outlined:-
1) Repelling his and the PPP bigotry;
2) Negotiated Guyana’s first redundancy package which unions at home and across the Caribbean strive to match;
3) Repelled the PPP’s effort to destroy the Critchlow Labour College and bury the Guyana Trades Union Congress; 4) Won tax-free overtime for bauxite workers which was extended to sugar workers under the PNC administration and now denied bauxite workers under the PPP;
5) Negotiated a contract for bauxite workers that allowed for one percent of the production of calcine bauxite to be assigned for the purchasing of food for workers and their family;
6) The 1992 success by GB&GWU on redundancy payment influenced the 1997 Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Law.
7) The 2004 victory by the union which improved redundancy conditions to the level of hours worked, rather than years and months, based on the work operation unique characteristics –an unmatchable feat in the Caribbean;
8) Sustained the valiant 3½ years struggle by GB&GWU against BCGI and the Government of Guyana to ensure the respect for the rights of workers to freedom of association and collective bargaining as enshrined in the Guyana Constitution and Trade Union Recognition Law;
9) Developed the Caribbean Labour Platform which is being used throughout the Region as Labour’s bible for workers’ development and a concept embraced by CARICOM;
10) Negotiated a grant from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to pursue the Caribbean Labour Movement’s Decent Work Agenda;
11) Member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Technical Committee that developed the convention on safety in open cast mines.
Now that Dev has some information as what to my anger; pugnacious and confrontational style have achieved, let him stand up and show this nation what his style has achieved.
I will set the ball rolling by pointing him to the July 2, 2012 Chronicle editorial and its supporting letters, the discriminatory management and wanton corruption by this government, intra and inter group atrocities, all of which his depraved mind and bigoted writings are seeking to give legitimacy to under the guise of being an Indian rights activist.
Let him prove to this nation how his current style is not hindrance to peaceful co-existence, equitable development and good governance.
On my part there is no apology for my style. And to Dev’s comment that such “can have wide repercussions,” he is advised said repercussions will adversely affect his agenda for racial dominance. For head on I challenge those who violate the laws and trample citizens’ rights; and work to protect and advance these rights.
Similarly, I confront those who plunder and rape this nation, fabricate our history, create racial disunity, hinder peaceful co-existence and equitable development; and the enablers of wrongdoing. I challenge them and will continue to so do with all the fibre in my being. Not one to be enamoured by the cowardly style of leading from behind, my tactic has delivered for this nation, the Caribbean and workers around the world.
Further, he is put on notice that his tricks of clutching to his philosophers/thinkers lifeline as avoidance in dealing with matters will not fool, faze or impress.
He does not fool with his claim to have done something in 2004. This is 2012, governance is at its lowest ebb, the world still turns, and he continues to write, but chooses to perpetuate disrespect for Africans, rather than stand up like others within his group and be counted for taking the side for what is just and right.
Clearly he is not interested in this, but more in his penchant for sowing seeds of division and hatred among the races on falsehoods such as: a) if Indians did not come to Guyana, the country would have reverted to mangroves; and b) Africans are violent and aggressive towards authority figures. He displays such effrontery in this enlightened age and in the presence of what’s taking place in this society.
Dev is reminded no right-thinking African will be offended if criticisms and condemnations are universal and honest.
Equally, no wrong-thinking African who is considered a leader will be allowed to perpetuate what he gets away with. He is no victim here.
The society is the victim of his bigotry. For he knows all human beings are capable of good and bad, but remains silent to this universal truth. And in an insidious way he perpetuates bad behaviours by his group against each other; and his group against the other(s) and the State.
Finally, it is not Dev’s domain to determine the behaviour/strategy I enlist in the struggle for the creation of a just society. The universal declarations, international conventions and Guyana Constitution shall be the only determinant!
Lincoln Lewis

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