We Have Crossed The Line of Decency

Dear Editor,

How can anyone, who like the majority of Guyanese are rational and can see unveiling before their eyes, an Administration led by its President and Vice President, not see that we have crossed the line of decency. What we understand to be Democracy and the Rule of Law, have entered a state of dictatorship, reminiscent of the worst days of Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, just four generations ago.

I refer to only two issues. One, this Government’s refusal to deduct Union Dues for the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU). In a normal functional democracy, characterised by decency, an almost universal practice of the Employer (in this case the PPP Government) facilitating deduction of Union Dues to hand over to the Union representing a given category of workers is a norm.

But beyond this normal practice, the High Court ruled that the Government must deduct Union Dues for the Guyana Teachers Union. This has not happened and is not happening. This assault on tradition and the ruling of the High Court is unbelievable.

Second, again inconsistent with the norms of a free and democratic society, you have a Government that is utilising US$50,000.00 dollars monthly, to burnish its image by promulgating their fiction as facts.

All the time there is the crusade of damning the independent media, whose only crime is speaking the truth and exposing the calumny of a Government, whose mission seems to be to ensure that every facet of national life responds to the drumbeat of their idea of oneness, meaning the only ones that matter are the PPP’s top brass supported by sycophants

The crusade is so total, that they have the Leader of the Cricket Board, publicly endorsing a particular Leader of a particular Party. This has never happened before in all of my 70 odd years of public life in our country. It is disgusting, distasteful and an unhappy descent into the dungeon of human existence.

I note the words of the Prophet Kahlil Gibran – “Pity the Nation, whose Statesman is a Fox and whose Philosopher is a juggler, whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.” All Guyanese must not be guilty of the sin of silence, but speak up, keep writing, for the struggle for sanity, safety and good sense must continue unabated. Maybe very soon, we will solve this problem.

Yours truly,
Hamilton Green
Elder