GHRA versus the AG: Corrugated, convoluted, contorted Guyana

Dec 04, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – In a forthcoming column I will ask the question why no diaspora Guyanese hasn’t contacted Germany about the moral double standards of the Guyana branch of Transparency International. For now let’s look at the farcical reply of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) to the pungent exposé of the flimsy existence of the Guyana Human Rights Association by the Attorney-General (AG).
One general observation is important before we proceed. The caricature and farce of non-existent organisations in Guyana the past 25 years has been encouraged by the media and have been met with general silence by the Guyanese society. The latest saga in this disgusting affair centred on a new entity formed by PNC parliamentarian, Amanza Walton-Desir (AWD).
When David Granger as leader of the PNC accepted AWD’s organisation into the APNU, several central committee members of the PNC criticised him for not consulting the leadership of the party. They claimed AWD’s organism simply does not exist. Granger himself in naming his parliamentarians after the 2020 general elections made reference to paper organisations.
Here is what the recently AFC dossier titled “The Way Forward” had to say on the subject of non-existent organisations in Guyana: “The AFC needs to closely examine the prospects and possibilities of a six-party coalition, where some members are virtually non-existent, except for their names appearing on paper and whose contribution remains questionable.”
Once the name WPA comes in view, all Guyanese know that it represents a caricature and farce and the name WPA is kept alive by a certain section of the press. This party for decades now has had no congress, no elected executive committee, no membership and for the longest time had four or five people speaking for it. It is simply a moral repugnancy to speak of a living political party named the WPA. In the coalition named APNU, there is supposed to be a party called National Front Alliance headed by a man named Keith Scott. This exists on paper only.
For decades now, the GHRA, founded in the 1970s by Mr. Mike McCormack became dormant. The media carried episodic press releases of the GHRA but as a functioning entity that confronts human rights violation in the state sector, private power and society in general, the GHRA is invisible. Two factors caused the GHRA to lose its physiology. One was the rise of television in Guyana with local televisions newscasts. The other was the expansion of newspapers in the 1990s.
What happened is that in those two realms, human rights violations were exposed and people with grievances went there, particularly to CN Sharma and the Kaieteur News. The GHRA became more irrelevant as the 1990s wore on because it did not have numbers to prolong its work with the bulk of its task falling on its founder, Mr. McCormack, who is currently in his late seventies.
The GHRA has become a press release organisation. But even in this department it falls down badly. There was no press release condemning five months of election rigging. No press release on what Mingo did. No press release on the four different election results announced by the Chief Election Officer.
Here is what the Attorney-General said three days ago about the GHRA: “When this country was under siege for five months, I don’t recall hearing a single word of condemnation coming from this human rights organisation. This organisation was silent. Now, we are trying to correct the system, repair the wrong, rectify the wrong, tighten the wrong, we are trying to repair the damage and here is this organisation beating its chest and criticising us and misguidedly so.”
How can any decent, nationalist that wants a future for this country disagree with the AG’s observation? The man is right. The GHRA is horribly wrong. Even if it has lost its steam over the decades, the election drama demanded every voice of condemnation. Now suddenly the GHRA has found its voice on the amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act. You have to be dishonest not to see a hidden agenda.
Here now is the key to understanding the failure of the GHRA over the past two decades. In response to the AG, the GHRA noted that it has been in existence for over forty years. But if you have one person at the helm of an organization for more than 40 years, energy, enthusiasm, innovative thinking will fade as the person gets older and society’s problems multiply daily. This is what happened in March 2020 with the election rigging. There were no young, vibrant leadership in the GHRA to confront election rigging. Guyana desperately needs a new human/civil rights grouping.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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