Public service bodies should be free from political influence – Freddie Kissoon

Oct 08, 2015 News

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Social activist and Kaieteur News Columnist, Freddie Kissoon, told the Commission of Inquiry, (COI) into the Public Service, on Tuesday that in 1992, the ruling political party was responsible for engineering the ethnic transformation of Guyana’s Public Service with enormous manifestations of racial/racist prejudice.

Kissoon was invited to the Commission to make a presentation on the terms of reference.  He told the panel of Commissioners that included Professor Harold Lutchman, Samuel Goolsaran and Sandra Jones, that he can offer validity to the statement based on his research about “ethnic engineering in the public service.”
The research, he said, captures the essence of race and other social issues in a graphic and factual way.  Kissoon also presented a copy of his research to the Commission. The document was tendered and marked as an exhibit.
During his testimony, Kissoon underscored the sociological theory that the Public Service is in danger of being emasculated or destroyed because of the nature of social evolution in the two major ethnic groups.
In support of this theory, Kissoon said that following emancipation and the abolition of indentured servants, the two ethnic groups were separated by their choice of occupation.
The Guyanese of African descent, he said, were resentful of the plantation life, thus they shunned agriculture and its prospects while the Indians went into commerce and agriculture.
According to the witness there was a stark demarcation of these two main ethnic groups in the 1950’s.
The Afro Guyanese were naturally inclined to become educators, administrators and state personnel; Afro -Guyanese naturally dominated the security forces and the Public Sector.
Pointing to this data, Kissoon noted that in the ethnic competition for state power, political groups which were not of a different ethnic make- up would generally be discomforted with a public service/security force that was predominantly African Guyanese.
“I believe that many of the tragedies and sadness in the country in terms of the way political power was exercised in this country and onwards because there was an overtly Indian party in power that had to rely on an overtly African Public Service… “
Kissoon underscored that sociologically, Guyana has been associated with ethnic competition both in terms of political power and hegemony.
Post 1992 the Indian-based party in power engineered the ethnic transformation of the public service with enormous manifestations of racial / racist prejudice.
The suspicion between Government and the public service, he said, was significantly reduced under the PNCR-led administration.
The columnist believes that part of the solution is for Guyana’s ethnic composition to have multi-ethnic political parties. The PPP, Kissoon said, has not done enough to transform itself into a multiracial party.
“Unless there is change in the nature, class structure and ethnic composition of the party which in opposition … if it comes to power in 2020 we will revert to what was found in the research.”
He noted, too, that Guyanese have not resolved the ethnic division which started in the 1950’s.   In support of this notion, the witness pointed out the recent elections, in which he underlined that a large percentage of the electorate voted along racial lines.
Asked about the solutions to these issues, Kissoon suggested that in order for the Public Service to be protected from ethnic contamination of those in power, there must be an annihilation of any semblance of hegemony within the sector.
“If the Commissioner of Police does not owe his job to the President, then he would be less inclined to pander to race or politics.”
In this context, Kissoon also recommended reforms and independence of all statutory bodies.  He recommended that representatives of Boards like the Public Service Commission and the Police Service Commission should be free from political influence.
“There should not be persons with political allegiance or appointments on such committees”
Chairman of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority, (GNBA) Leonard Craig, also made recommendations to the COI. His presentation was based on issues related to labour and economics in the sector.
Addressing issues associated with contract and traditional workers, Craig opined that there is no need for a parallel Public Service with contracted employees.
“That destroys the public service,” he exclaimed.
He added that contract workers should not have certain positions and powers in the public service. He underlined too, that under the contract agreement, employees are liable for paying their own dues to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and other tax bodies.
This, he said, creates avenues for non compliance to the NIS and tax regulatory bodies.  According to him there should be laws in place which enforce contract workers to pay their NIS and other tax dues.

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