This is what makes me insanely angry in Guyana

Mar 25, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Let me preface my anger with what has been revealed about alleged mistreatment by a former employee of the National Parks Commission with a few pertinent remarks.
Do the research if you care to and go back to thousands and thousands of columns of mine, and you will find my lamentation of how poor, low income Guyanese are treated by organisations and individuals who claim their raison d’être is justice, democracy and good governance.
On the contrary, as I have written several times in the past, their thing is not democracy, but publicity. These people have a psychological void in their lives and it appears that the publicity does something that makes them live.
These people will treat with the utmost contempt, the violations of ordinary people but let the focus be on some prominent person and you will see how the crabs will crawl out for publicity. Let me just give one hypothetical example.
An ordinary labourer boards the ferry, and the officials tell him/her the ferry is filled and as the rejected person leave, they take in more passengers. The wronged person writes a letter in the newspaper about this mistreatment. It begins and ends there.
But if that passenger that was turned away was a CEO or a prominent professional or eminent official, man oh man, the usual suspects would have published a deluge of letters in the press signed by 65 names. Do you know why? Those 65 names are not interested in justice but publicity.
When I was growing up and was active in politics, there was a law firm named Fitzpatrick and DeCaires that strongly opposed the Burnham dictatorship and would fight Burnham often in the courts. But you could not approach that firm for redress in court for any sugar worker or urban labourer whose rights were violated. Although the firm did consistent pro-bono work for the PPP, it was Mrs. Janet Jagan who would go out of her way to find a lawyer for ordinary people who came to her.
I grew up and saw that very syndrome and in deep ways, these things have left a lasting effect on me. In 2012, we had a grassroot organisation named “People’s Parliament”. We took up the case of a group of poor Parika vendors who were evicted illegally by the NDC.
We asked a lawyer to litigate the matter for us. He agreed then, days later, he said cannot continue because it is a losing battle. I asked Neil Parsram, the nephew of Dr. Cheddi Jagan to help. He did the case freely for us and won it. Mr. Parsram was genuine about helping poor people. He was not interested in publicity. When I look back at my days of activism, I know I would get a million libel writs when I expose these things which formed part of my life should I write my memoirs.
We come to the opening lines of this column about the fellow who published what the National Park Commission is alleged to be doing to him. If his story is true, then this is just another episode of the sad country we have but more importantly the frightening minds that Guyana is unfortunately saddled with.
In the newspapers yesterday, the man, Mr. Lennon Stevens argues that the National Parks Commission is refusing to award him his legally due severance pay and other benefits. If he is not telling the truth then GAWU and the Ministry of Labour ought to expose him since he cited them as playing a huge part in winning his case.
One of the reasons, Mr. Stevens was cited for non-action by his employers is that there is no board in place. But in 2019 when he was terminated, there was a board. I know there was a board back then. It was chaired by Dr. Raquel Thomas and I wrote to her about issues in the National Park.
Why when he was fired in 2019, he did not get his money? Why he is still not paid? Mr. Stevens’ explanation of the absence of a board just does not make sense. In fact, it is unadulterated nonsense. A public institution doesn’t need a board to make the decision to give out severance pay. That is an administrative matter.
Mr. Stevens’ plight isn’t going to be taken up by the large school of usual suspects who didn’t want Mike Pompeo to visit Guyana, who were annoyed that six Haitians were arrested, who see everything wrong with the oil industry in Guyana. And why not? Who knows Mr. Stevens? There is no publicity to be gained from helping him. Worms and crabs crawl. So do humans.
(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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This is what makes me insanely angry in Guyana

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