I want to know how Dr. Roopnarine voted in Cabinet

Aug 28, 2016 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
The APNU+AFC government’s final offer on wages and salaries increases for public servants for 2016 is disappointing and leaves much to be desired. My main concern is in relation to what I wish to refer to as the measly 10% offered to the low income workers who, more than any other category, is in need of significant increases in their incomes to help them to address the rising cost of living and to feed their children.
This morning (Friday, August 26th) a worker who voted for the coalition stopped me while I was on a visit to the RDC office in Region 10. He was protesting in anger at the government’s treatment of workers in the wages/salaries negotiations. He said, “like the people running the government gone mad”. He went on relentlessly,” is this what we vote (sic) for? Is this the good life the President speaks about? What we get is not change but exchange”. Listening to the comrade was no easy task, I could not offer a defense of the government on this matter and, to be frank, I had no intention to do so, since I believe that this offer is an act of political provocation directed to organized labor.
I find it hard to accept that the Finance Minister was able to convince the Cabinet that this is the best he can muster for workers’ wages and salaries. I hope that the offer is not influenced by IMF conditionalities which have not been revealed to the Guyanese populace. If that is the case the situation is more grievous than is imagined. The government’s final offer appears not to have taken note of the assurances, which Prime Minster Moses Nagamootoo gave to workers when he addressed the 2016 May Day celebrations. In his address, he made reference to the fact that government had set aside a substantial amount of money in the 2016 budget to meet wages and salaries increases for the year.
Before I proceed with the concerns I have on this matter I want to break with party protocol and publicly ask my party’s representative in the Cabinet, Comrade Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine to inform the nation on how he voted in the Cabinet on this matter. This is not a frivolous matter. Since it can have important political consequences on future relations between the APNU+AFC coalition and the messes of working people, whose vote the coalition will need if it is to be returned to office come 2020 Regional and General elections. It therefore requires from Dr. Roopnaraine a public disclosure of the position he took in Cabinet on the issue under discussion, bearing in mind what the WPA’s historic position has been as regards workers’ wages and salaries.
Like it or not this is going to be one of the greatest challenges to confront the 16 months old regime. It comes at a time when the government’s image and credibility have been taking a licking in the public’s eyes. I am concerned that our leaders are in denial as it relates to the widening disconnect with its supporters and constituents. On the ground the tension is increasing. People are saying that we, who are in government, are only looking after ourselves and care little about the people. This is a politically damming perception of the ruling APNU+AFC leadership.
Politically, the government’s final offer to the workers’ representatives lack vision. It is devoid of an understanding of realpolitik, which the present situation in the country requires. I am of the firm view that if the Guyana Government had made a reasonable offer to the GPSU (which its final offer isn’t) it would have signaled to the broad masses of people that it was really attuned to the difficulties they are faced and is committed to addressing the matter in a positive way. That act would have gone a far way to assuage the feelings of the masses and its own supporters who are feeling neglected and, are beginning to express regrets for voting APNU+AFC into power in 2015.
It is my considered opinion that an increase of 20 to 25% for low income workers was the least the government could have offered, given all the known challenges it faces. Such an offer even
though it would have disappointed some workers and their leadership, would have resulted in the broad masses of workers willingly accepting the compromise offer and doing so with dignity. As the situation now stands, the APNU+AFC government has dug itself into another hole, one that will be difficult, if not impossible, to extract itself from. It puts itself on a confrontational course with organized labor leaving the workers and its leadership with no choice but to fight back, opening the possibility of broad base workers actions against the regime.
On this grave matter the President and the Cabinet were poorly advised, “Infantile economics” seem to dominate the thinking of Cabinet members. As a WPA leader I await the information from Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine on how he voted in the Cabinet on this issue. I also await the response of the PNCR Congress to this most important challenge facing the APNU+AFC government and the working people of Guyana.
Tacuma Ogunseye

---

---