The PPP cried foul when it realised the

opposition will benefit from the project

Dear Editor,
Clement Rohee has once again made Guyana a laughing stock. The first time Guyana suffered similar embarrassment with this gentleman was in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs at an international forum where his inability to differentiate between the Dominican Republic and the Commonwealth of Dominica caused Guyana support to the wrong country. Today he continues his notoriety, comforted in the fact that President Ramotar will protect him even though he continues to embarrass himself and Guyana. This is the level to which political leadership has sunk, and unfortunately, this is the quality of representation the workers’ hard earned tax-dollars pay for.
While growing up, our teachers instilled in us the principle, “when in doubt find out.” Some admonished “it is better to be thought the fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Rohee would have been exposed to the same teachings. The PPP and government’s use of terms like laws, sovereignty and national interest, fronted by Rohee in his capacity as Minister of Home Affairs and PPP General Secretary to justify the revocation of the work permit of an international worker on the US Leadership and Democracy (LEAD) Project and agreed suspension are embarrassments to all of us, and the once enviable reputation this country had that was nurtured in the generation Rohee and I grew up in.
Had Rohee followed his teachers’ advice and checked a dictionary he would have been educated. Guyana’s sovereignty on the LEAD Project could not be under threat as claimed by the PPP because the project document was signed in 2009 by the Minister of Finance Ashni Singh on behalf of the Government of Guyana. My concern on this issue is not about the LEAD Project but the obvious denial by the PPP and government of the workers/citizens’ right to information and their freedoms. Not once from 2009 did the government reject this project or claim that it was signed under duress. In July 2013 the PPP sent Minister Frank Anthony and MP Indra Chandrapaul to participate in the project launch. This event was also attended by members of the political opposition.
The question should be asked, why did the PPP sign the agreement in 2009, participate in the launching in 2013 to cry violation of laws, sovereignty and national interest in 2014? Surely from the utterances of Rohee this is a replica of the Dominican Republic and Commonwealth of Dominica fiasco.
The PPP began to feign concern and cry foul when the party realised the political landscape is no longer tilted to its numerical advantage and the opposition political parties and NGOs they cannot control will benefit from the project. A party that has conditioned itself to see governance as a right and not a privilege is still finding it hard coming to grips with the fact that 2011 elections did not bestow to it what it has come to see as an entitlement. As customary with this type of thinking the fault is not theirs but others. The independent media “carrion crows” were blamed for carrying out their watchdog duty, which is today seeing the government efforts to curtail this by calling for media oversight.
The will of the electorate and their political representatives continue to be disrespected. The independent trade union has come under attack in the form of withdrawal of subvention to the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), denial of the right to collective bargaining and recent attempt to control the GTUC’s educational arm, the Critchlow Labour College (CLC) by tying the workers’ subvention to having the PPP aligned FITUG sit on the board.
In the instance of the CLC there seems to be a campaign to wrest the college from its owner as uttered by Rohee in his Monday ramblings with the media. Contrary to his belief my ego is immaterial to the business of the college which is written in statute and guided by the policy position of the owner. That Carvil Duncan, President of FITUG sought to use the May Day platform to make known FITUG’s readiness to bring its members to the Board, followed by a letter from the CCWU’s president in the Guyana Chronicle, all are put on notice to look else-place. The National Assembly is expected to respect the laws of the land and is reminded it has no authority to determine who sits on the CLC’s board.
The GTUC and CLC refuse to be dictated to or to compromise their rights. The GTUC shall not allow FITUG representation on its CLC’s board to be the appendage of the PPP and participate in the mis-education of workers/citizens. If the CLC and GTUC are the last standing in the fight to make real the struggles, dreams and aspirations of Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow for the right to self-determination and respect for workers/citizens in the nation’s body politics we shall not shirk from our responsibility or baulk from the fight.
Had Rohee taken the time to familarise himself with the terms laws, sovereignty and national interest, he would have understood the importance of enforcing/respecting rules and guidelines across the board, the authority of the State to govern itself rest with the people, and national interest is guided by the Constitution.
Where our Constitution has bequeathed to us the guarantee to participate in periodic elections (national, regional and local) with stipulated timelines, requires autonomy of local government, mandates involvement in decision-making that affect wellbeing and the separation of power/branches of government, the people will work to achieve these. Man has an innate desire to be free, treated with respect and dignity. Obstacles put in the way only serve as temporary setback; the people will regroup and come again. The PPP are poor students of history. Nothing, absolutely nothing will prevent the enslaved, indentured, colonised or oppressed from rising up and demanding what’s rightly theirs. As day follows night, so too will freedom follow oppression.
Lincoln Lewis.