Political appointments: a closer look

Apr 26, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

For years and decades under different governments, we have heard about ‘political’ appointments and the fate of such creatures in the public service when there is a change of the political guard. In the last two years, give or take, under this new government, the screams against political appointments have risen to a fever pitch, as if it is a new leprosy, a peculiar virus unknown to this society.
I have listened and looked as one highly qualified Guyanese public servant after another has been scornfully booted, and to the thrills that fill narrow minds, the reflexive malice that saturates the mean spirited. Though there have been the racial that blankets the politically charged retributions, there is so much more that have not been touched upon, regarding these cleansing actions. I take this beyond the usual clearing out of human obstacles-possibly uncooperative for the right reasons (rules and regulations), and considered untrustworthy in what matters most (loyalty tests and fears)-to those areas that I have not heard addressed to date, and the wide-ranging implications for the ambience of this society.
Editor, when these so-called political appointments are held up to public humiliation through identification and selection for a certain kind of employment solution, meaning degrading termination, there is more than tarring and feathering, and running out of town. Those are the physical and occupational hazards experienced by those targeted, now an established part of Guyanese territory. This has been so under the PNC and the PPP; while both sides add insult to injury by speaking of the democratic and constitutional, and what is fair and just. As in almost everything else, they lie, they con; they engage in the worst of shallow pretenses, when they put qualified and patriotic Guyanese to the bureaucratic sword, and cheer themselves for a good job done, and good riddance. Except that the actions don’t end there.
What the jarring jettisoning of so-called political appointments do is go against a number of things that we say we are about, that we have. Democratic and constitutional ideals and provisions respectively. First, when a competent, untainted (conduct, not politics) public servant is dismissed for his or her politics, this violates their freedom of assembly. That is, they are effectively prohibited from being present at any political rally of interest to them, but which finds disfavour with those governing.
Second, there is a de facto prevention of freedom of association (and choice, to use abortion language) at an intimate personal level, when Guyanese are fired under the flag of political appointment. Third, when they are axed, under the same pretext, rulers have just curtailed their freedom of speech, which I interpret to mean that they can’t say I am for or about a side that is different or found objectionable to those deciding their fate. In any form that angers the holders of political power, be such orally, in writing, or by attitude. Fourth, and worse still, when public servants are separated from the flock of bureaucrats, with the castration and execution exercises following, their very freedom of thought is first trickily diluted and then forcefully diminished out of existence. In sum, it is this political and leadership compulsion, using their agencies, to think one way and one way only. For us, and absolutely no other.
Editor, as I view this distasteful practice now in full flow about political appointments, I discern an intensifying tyranny over thinking, which incarcerates minds first, then amputates movement towards, a position for, and a thought on behalf of those found encouraging, pleasing, even inspiring. For those who are enlightened and civilized, Solzhenitsyn, Stalinism, and Siberia, and the gulags of the Steppes should connect to known precedents and parallels. My concern is those are not of what was in old Russia and is in the new Russia, but what has seized control right here, and much more now. So, when someone is fired under the banner and bugle of political appointment, let us pause and reflect on how far and deep this reaches in this country. One claiming to be about democracy and constitutional rights and protections, and how far we have progressed in defeating those and devastating the shaky surface serenity of this society.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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Political appointments: a closer look

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