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Celebrating the misfortune of others

Dec 05, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

It is a tragic situation in Guyana. We celebrate the misfortune of others simply because we perceive them to have served the former government.
During this week two senior persons, one an editor and the other a senior manager, were sent packing from the Guyana National Newspapers Limited. Immediately, there were celebratory comments from persons on social media, expressing delight in the dismissals.
It is very disturbing to witness people actually being happy when persons are being placed on the breadline. This is not an issue about the justification of the dismissals. The issue is about the lack of human empathy.
The dismissals came as a surprise. The new government had a right when it assumed office six months ago to demand the resignation of the two individuals. It did not. It allowed them to continue to work, no doubt to ensure a smooth transition until the time came when they would be fired.
The individuals would probably not have known that, and therefore, like many others in the wider society, may have presumed that they would be retained. After all, having survived the first wave of dismissals by the new government, they must have presumed that they would have been retained. They were wrong in that assumption. The new Board no doubt held the two individuals responsible for the performance of the newspaper, both commercially and in terms of its content, and therefore took a decision, belatedly, to end their services.
Both of the individuals are still young persons, but when you are let go at a state agency, it is usually difficult to obtain employment in Guyana. Other state agencies will be reluctant to employ you, since there is residual assumption that government is indivisible, and that it would be unacceptable to employ anyone dismissed from any part of the state sector.
This ought not to be. There should be no prohibition against anyone being dismissed from a public corporation – and the Guyana National Newspapers Limited is a corporation – being employed in any other part of the government. Other corporations should be free to employ any individual whose services may have been terminated from another part of the government. In practice, this rarely happens.
What has happened is that a person who has to be past sixty years of age, and has lived outside of Guyana, has gotten the nod to be employed within the state sector.
There is always the possibility of persons dismissed by the government being employed by the private sector. But that is a remote possibility, because the private sector is highly intimidated by the government, and not any of them would want to be seen to be giving employment to someone who has fallen out of favour with the government.
The government remains far too influential in labour markets. The government remains much too important in terms of employment in the economy. The private sector is not independent enough; it is not strong enough, and it is highly dependent on the government, and therefore cannot act with the sort of independence expected of an entity independent of the government.
If after six months persons can still be sent packing, both at the Guyana Chronicle and at the GGMC, it does suggest that a second round of dismissals is about to happen, and there could also be a third wave by the non-renewal of contracts.
People are being put on the breadline. They will have a blue Christmas for sure. But that is no bother to the cheerleaders who are enjoying the misfortune of others.

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