The UNHRC does not have anything to defend

Apr 10, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) should be proud of its work. It has nothing to defend, especially as such relates to its recent lines of questioning about corruption and abuses in Guyana. The questions that the UNHRC saw fit to push for answers have been the varied experience of Guyanese. Many of them have seen it, recognize what is happening, and draw their own conclusions about the weaknesses and disturbing patterns of conduct of the PPPC Government.

In the locked minds of the men and women in the PPPC Government, they have a monopoly on local truths. Meaning, that those Guyanese who have the temerity to call out the government and its malfeasances are liars. The PPPC in power holds itself out as a paragon of governance virtue, which only opens it to national ridicule. While the chief government spokesperson tasked with responding to the UNHRC, Minister Gail Teixeira was at her slipperiest best, she only made matters worse. It was obvious to any knowledgeable observer that the UNHRC had done its research diligently and came armed with loads of detail about the way things are in Guyana. Committee Member, Ms. Helene Tigroudha insisted that Guyana is not being made into a special case, but that the same standards apply to all countries that signed off on international instruments.

What such ratification does is to tie countries to periodic inquiry and probing to ensure that there is compliance to what was committed to, what must be the norm. What Guyanese have become familiar with is how the same PPPC Government that takes such offense at the UNHRC has become comfortable in having its way locally, and not taking kindly to any criticism or exposure whatsoever. In brief, this government and its leadership cohort, in which Minister Teixeira is a longstanding pillar, likes to boast of having policies and procedures in place, but does mostly nothing in adhering to them. In keeping with what prevails in domestic Guyana, the PPPC Government seeks to have respected international agencies gloss over its misconducts and look the other way when chronic official wrongs rise to be the routine.

These are all part of the public record, and it is an expansive one. Most Guyanese have seen, have read, and have heard, for themselves the dirty and ugly record of a government run amok and answerable to no one, other than its own senior policymakers. Guyanese know about the rivers of corruptions, the allegations of corruption, and the dead ends into which those terminate. The corruption is just too much not to be noticed, not to be commented on and condemned. So also, have been the dead bodies of those killed by uniformed agents of the State under questionable circumstances. When national leaders surround themselves with the dregs and scrapings from the bottom of the Guyana barrel, then it should not surprise that the criminally inclined believe that the law does not apply to them. Twisted officers of the law conclude that their political masters will provide cover for them when things get out of hand and too hot. Members in the breast of the PPPC Government think that they are doing what would please their political seniors when they attack members of the media and those who expose to its untruths. This is whether any orders from the top were passed or not. We at this paper have had our own experiences that are well-publicized, and which no party or entity, local or foreign, has to dig too deep to appreciate the many dirty realities that have taken centerstage in PPPC Guyana.

Taking this record of the PPPC Government clinically, or even only a reasonable portion of it, the UNHRC would have been blind, deaf, and lost not to know what is going on here. The sharpness of the economic divide, the alarming chasm between the haves and have nots, needs no introduction. They are no mystery in this oil rich country. Try as the government may, and Minister Teixeira certainly did, these issues cannot be swept under the carpet. The UNHRC knew all this, and this is what has been reinforced before the world: the disturbing and the self-defeating.

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Government, Guyanese, power, PPPC, United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC)

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