On May Day 2022, new union leaders are needed

May 02, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Andaiye on May 14, 2002 wrote the words: “not in my name” when the murdering, racists gunmen during the Buxton mayhem published a pamphlet shouting out that they were acting on behalf of African Guyanese.
Isabelle DeCaires, on March 7, 2020, in rejection of those rigging the election, wrote: “I say as one Guyanese, no, not in my name.” Every three or six months, a new organisation is born with people of flaky character, having no credible membership exclaiming that they are speaking on behalf of the Guyanese people.
I will reject paper organisations and dubious personalities speaking on behalf of me. You can use whatever vocabulary you like to derogate me, you can contact my newspaper to stop it publishing my replies to you, but I will not be deterred. No, do not speak on my behalf. Each time you say you are, you will hear from me. No, not in my name!
But there are older organisations whose unacceptable, anti-democratic leaders continue to say that they represent the Guyanese people. No, you do not represent me and thousands like me. You do not represent the Guyanese people. The incident I am about to describe to you is the kind of evil I have spent my entire life preaching against. It is the kind of misconduct that I have been exposing my entire life so the Guyanese people can learn.
You cannot criticise governmental leaders for lack of principles, moral righteousness, trust, ethical deportment, accountability, and transparency, and your behaviour and attitude are no different. When you get into government you will do the same or worse.
After 23 years of sleeping at the bottom of the political ocean, the PNC got power and showed Guyana it was not a superior moral and political force. The AFC criticised the PPP government with rabid frenzy. When the Guyanese people listened and agreed with them and entrusted them with power, the AFC turned out to be the worst violators of everything decent in politics.
Now for the incident. The Trade Union Recognition Board has abrogated its recognition agreement given in February 2020, with a union to represent drivers at Cyril’s Taxi Service. The secretary of the board informed the public of a nasty and ugly conflict of interest, the kinds of things that this nation must not accept. The laws of morality govern civilisation.
The secretary informed the nation that the union applied for recognition of drivers that service the employees of EXXON only and not total drivers of Cyril’s. It turned out the board granted recognition to the union to cover all the drivers and the head of the union sat on the recognition board.
Two compelling questions enter your mind. Was certification wrongly given to cover all drivers because the union head sat on the board? And was this not an insane manifestation of conflict of interest? An analogy goes something like this. A student appealed his B grade and was given an A grade by the parents/teachers’ association. And guess who sat on the association – the student’s father.
Decency, morality and commonsense should have prevailed and the father should have recused himself when the appeal was being heard. For all the years, critics have been lambasting the government from Forbes Burnham right up to Dr. Irfaan Ali, countless numbers of these critics were/are hypocrites whose standards were so low that they disqualified them from chastising any president.
This is the kind of morbid hypocrisy I have sermonised against my entire life. And it continues up to this day. They are dark minds out there that rejoice at the anti-government diatribes they throw at governmental leaders. But you pen one line exposing their ugly double standards and they contact your newspaper to stop you.
There is an online newspaper named Village Voice that has many writers hostile to the PPP government and their racially charged advocacy is not hidden. But it has been taken to court for copyright infringement by the owner who contends his paper has been hijacked. I cannot expand because the matter is before the courts.
Life has some simple rules. If you criticise the duck-thief, you should not steal your neighbours chickens. If you want an elected government to accommodate you, you must possess moral credibility. Do not form paper organisations and demand an elected government listen to you. Do not speak on behalf of the Guyanese people. Finally, on this day, the average Guyanese should peruse the list of leaders in the trade union movement. Some of these leaders have been in office more than 30 years. They have become the owners of these unions and they behave as such.
(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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