In this trillion-dollar economy the national patrimony of the country is being used by some political leaders in the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) as their personal property. A few have decided they will distribute this patrimony between and among themselves and cohorts. These leaders have formed alliances with some in the business community, who they call ‘partners,’ and together they are making decisions about the management and distribution of the nation’s resources, which to a very large extent ignore the people and their representatives.
Presiding over the undemocratic management of the state is President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall. The PPP trio, in their promotion of exclusion and singularly commandeering the nation’s resources, is attempting to justify excluding the constitutional Opposition from engagement to discuss issues pertaining to the management of the state, as an act to get power through the backdoor. This notion must be rejected by every right-thinking Guyanese.
Based on GECOM’s declaration, half the electorate voted for the Opposition and no society can operate in peace and harmony when any group is ignored, and worse yet for such a sizable section. Ignoring the representatives of people and workers is a known trait of Jagdeo’s management, a trait that now characterises the Ali regime, who many have come to believe is not his own man.
Workers remember only too well when Jagdeo sought to hoodwink bauxite workers of Kwakwani, Everton and Linden. He visited the bauxite communities and told the workers he would not treat with the trade union and to get his attention they must form committees. When some workers followed his dictate, he failed to deliver.
We the people must break out from our complacency or resignation to the growing injustices and understand the resources the trio and others are using to discriminate against us belong to all. It is time we stop thinking and believing we must beg, crawl and/or grovel for what is justly ours. We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be treated as subjects.
We must no longer accept or fear the wrath of the trio using the state’s power and authority to silence us for expressing dissent, alternative views, demanding what’s justly ours, have elected representatives speak on our behalf, and participate in this trillion-dollar economy not by crumbs but in equal measures. In the fight for justice and fair play we have to be our brothers and sisters’ keepers.
I recall when the PPP attacked the trade union many in society, including politicians, remained silent. When they engaged in extrajudicial killings some thought it did not concern them and stayed silent. Then there was the shooting of unarmed nurses in 1999; the continuous mistreatment of workers of the Bauxite Company Guyana Incorporation (BCGI); the July 2012 shooting of protestors in Linden and some remain silent. Silence has emboldened the Jagdeo/Ai regime beyond measures, causing me to reflect on what we should never forget, as said by Pastor Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
The PPP must not be allowed to continue to deny any individual, group or organisation meaningful participation in society consistent with the Guyana Constitution and time-honoured principles. The level of crassness, contempt and lawlessness that embodies this regime for the electorate and representative democracy we must reject. This is state terrorism where three men have turned the apparatus of the state against the people and their representatives.
Terrorism is not only the people against the state but when the state turns on the people causing them to live in fear, fear to even express an alternative view lest they receive a knock on their door and be whisked away in the dead of night, never to be seen again alive. The world and Guyana know this situation only too well.
The draconian Cyber Crime Act is being used to intimidate and drive fear into people. Which part of the democratic world workers cannot exercise the right to protest as seen with the present struggle by sugar workers who are now placed before the court. We are bearing witness to an intensification of state terrorism. This cancer, if not excised, will spread, seeking to eat away at the trade unions, cooperatives, and other civic society organisations.
We must reject the regime’s conduct which undermines at least five fundamental areas of good governance, which are: respect for the right to freedom of association; freedom of assemble; protection from discrimination on the grounds of race, political association, etc; representative democracy; and inclusionary democracy in the management and decision-making processes of the state on matters that impact individuals and organisations’ well-being. These are adumbrated in the Constitution at articles 147, 146, 149, 9 and 13 respectively.
The PPP is pushing the Opposition and society to the point where persons will have no other alternative but to renounce the Government as a legal entity and move to have extra parliamentary activities against its atrocities. When the people demonstrate that they have had enough, CARICOM and the international community should not be surprised at the environment that they have helped to create with their silence, poor assessment of the situation, decision-making, and support of a lawless regime. People, like rubber bands, also have stretch limitations.
