Discrimination in Guyana’s Public Service – I stand unmoved

Sep 27, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I note the letter titled, “Responding to Benschop and GHK Lall” (KN September 26).  My first take was that I don’t recall making any kind of inquiry, but taking a position as a public service contribution.  Nonetheless, I thank the writer and commend this Guyanese for having the courage of his convictions, the fundamental decency, to share in the independent, mainstream media.  Speaking for myself alone, I make this exception in responding, only this one.

I gather that the writer is peeved at my contentions of discrimination in the public service, as especially directed at African/Black Guyanese.  Again, it is gratifying that this is an issue that concerns someone enough to generate putting pen to paper.  The three thrusts were of “evidence”, the precedent of “GuySuCo” and silence, and last “serious” consequences resulting from presentations, such as mine.

Regarding evidence, I help.  There are what are loosely termed ‘Retirement Units’ in several ministries of this PPP Government.  It is the pasture area, (waiting for hammer to fall, end to come), where Black Guyanese public servants are being unceremoniously and systematically corralled to get rid of them eventually.  The highly skilled and well-experienced ones are kept for the purpose of training their replacements, who are usually of the other major racial strain.  Many held in suspense in these units for the day to come, have just packed up and left, for they will have none of such exploitative and discriminatory practices, given who are the victims.  Next, there are droves of Black Guyanese public servants who have been reduced to the indignity and trauma of being dangled on a month-to-month basis when their employment contracts expire.  Also, there are those Black public servants whose work contracts have expired, and they are terminated.  There is usually no reason given.  The reality is that today, they are in; by the end of the day, they are sent packing.

I know of the utterly ludicrous situation of Thomas Nestor, Guyana Gold Board Audit Consultant, who did excellent work there, being fired because he was supposedly ‘too old.’  He is a friend and pointed out that people older than himself were among those presiding over his departure.  The case of Mr. Hilbert Knights is another.  He had over a decade of service at the Board when he was booted, without a word for his clean managing of a corrupting business.  I offer these snapshots so that all Guyanese could have a glimpse (a glimpse only) of what is happening to Black public servants in this country.  They are not Blacks from neighbouring CARICOM countries, but born and bred citizens of this our Guyana.  Further, the reports are of inexplicable outcomes in recruitments and promotions when Blacks citizens are around.  My last two points on this score are: (1) Black public servants (any others) are afraid to come out in the open and say that they have been subject to discriminatory treatment since that would spell a doomed existence for them in this country.  The grim prospects are private sector work (or migration, if possible), and we all know how inseparable the private sector is from the PPP Government.  In this tight knit, open secret society, political powers can make any such tenure objectionable and, hence, dismissible upon discovery of such employment.  This is the ugly and dastardly state to which this country has deteriorated.  So, people keep quiet and hope for the best.  My second point is that it is said that all politics is local, which in Guyana means all politics is race, given our voting history and patterns. The consequences of those are coming to light, especially after the storm-tossed 2020 elections; vengeance is now extracted, and vileness perfected, through the continuum of public service artifices and caprices going on below the radar.

Second, the writer spoke of GuySuCo and silence when Indian sugar workers were the target.  This is my stance.  If I were the decision-maker (or advisor) then or now, the issues to confront head-on would have to be: (1) can this entity be viable; (2) what is the likelihood/probability of competing and delivering; and (3) with what long-term prospects on the table. The still honest among us, including inside the PPP, know the answers, none of which comforts.  I would close, but on a more structured basis, and in a more thoughtful manner.  That’s my bottom line.  I look at the tens of billions used to keep GuySuCo afloat on its knees, and think of how much more wisely those billions (with more to follow) could have been put to work to reequip and redeploy and redirect impacted workers in a staggered format.  I say this fully understanding that GuySuCo represents PPP voter surety, which erects an impregnable steel wall against any other considerations, no matter how progressive.  What I detect is that GuySuCo does have a utility almost as good as a vote getter: it serves as a depositary for the slush funds earmarked in budgets, so that the regular financial fun and games can be carried out under corporate cover.  To close this out, the fact that so much can be given to GuySuCo out of the national treasury, and such tightfistedness displayed in the public service (Black and PNC, I remind) speaks volumes.

Last, the writer spoke of people like me being the source of the ‘serious’ resulting down the line.  This is deliberate shortsightedness found regrettable, and too characteristic of loyalists, who wish everyone to see their partisan world through their racial prism.  In writing, I am exhorting to do differently by Guyanese public servants (mainly Black), so as to avoid coming to that contentious juncture about who did get, and who didn’t.  Who benefited (farmers, fishers, sugar workers, private sector operators, and selected community areas), and who is neglected.  The history of the ‘serious’ places is of the conflict that ensues when an internal group perceives a litany of marginalization, ostracization, and discrimination.  I have said my first and last words.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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