An insult to the workers of Guyana

Dec 07, 2013 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
The political and willful weakening of our traditional institutions is a process that begun not too long ago under the PPP regime which has and continues to do more to riddle our beloved Guyana with more bullet wounds than any of the armed bandits that roam the streets.
Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear has witnessed the venal trampling of the processes to lubricate their already lucrative oily palms at the expense of the poor and the working class. We have watched the dismantling of very important institutions that traditionally provide monitoring and accountability; that seek to ensure transparency and good governance, and to weed out corruption and other white-collar crimes that have plagued Guyana. This is a willful act by the regime to ensure that their raping of the treasury and the awarding lucrative contracts to their relatives and friends remain secretive—a system invented and perfected by the Jagdeo administration.
Our public institutions have become puppets, manipulated by the PPP cabal. People have to realize that corruption is a way of life in this country, where 75% of the workers is in some kind of corruption. There is corruption all over the world, but the difference in this country is no one is held accountable, no one is arrested, and no one is sent to prison. Yes, there was corruption under the PNC, but under the PPP the country seems to be lawless with scandals on a daily basis. no one seems capable of knowing what to do to stop the chaos taking place. It’s a case of take as much as you can from the state before the next general elections. No one seems to care about the damage being done for future generations to repair. No one seems to care about the future of this country, and that is sad.
The Public Service is one of the traditional institutions that have been weakened by the PPP regime. Once headed by intelligent, dedicated and informed citizens, the Public Service has now reached the point where it is run by people who have moved up the ranks due to party affiliations, not performance or qualifications.
Forty seven years after Independence, where meritocracy is still not the preferred measurement for promotion by the PPP, it was bound to happen. So now we have a group of contracted PPP public servants who are not only unqualified and inexperienced for the positions they hold, but who also have no idea of what their responsibilities are. They run institutions without understanding their tasks and how these institutions ought to function. These PPP contractors who are paid very high wages in US currency do not know how and why things are done, so they cannot even see the consequences of their actions. For them, today is today, yesterday was yesterday, and tomorrow is only a re-run.
The Public Service probably employs the highest percentage of the workforce in Guyana, and the majority of them are highly dissatisfied with their working conditions and poor wages/salaries. Yet, the PPP has the gall to offer them a meagre 5% wage increase when inflation is twice as high. And to add insult to injury, the Public Service Minister has stated that the workers should be thankful for 5% offered to them by the PPP regime. She also said that they are lucky to have an increase.
For the Minister to say that she is not aware of any protest shows that she is not in touch with reality and may be living either in space or in a cave but for sure, she cannot be living on mother earth. She has not only grossly insulted the workers of Guyana but has also belittled them.
Morale is so low that not even the talk about public service reform has done anything but made the workers more cynical. Why? Because they have heard it too often in the past, without anything substantial being done to improve their working conditions. The PPP has offered nothing to motivate them.
Today, gift, graft, greed and theft are the guiding principles that determine how the state’s business is run and the reason for the weakening of the institutions. Guyanese from every walk of life have witnessed the utter vulgarity of the way the PPP regime has mismanaged the taxpayers’ money and the state’s natural resources, and they have done so in a boldfaced manner never seen before.
The people have entrusted these egocentric simpletons with their money and power only to realize that the ruling clique has betrayed their trust.
We now live in a country where the consequences of corruption have overrun decency, integrity, honesty and common sense as to how to govern.  Can anyone truly trust the ruling clique anymore? Can anyone point to one project that is free of corruption? Can anyone believe anything they hear from the leaders of the regime? The truth is the regime no longer respects our institutions, the people and the rule of law.
Dr. Asquith Rose and Chandra Deollal, Esq

 

 

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