Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 23, 2015 From the Diaspora
By Ralph Seeram
The biggest blunder this APNU/AFC government has made so far, is firing the nearly 2000 Amerindian Community Support Officers (CSO); in one sweep they put nearly 1952 people in the unemployment line, in one sweep they took bread from the table of 1952 families and in one sweep they have killed a great opportunity win over the Amerindians’ goodwill, all because this Government perceive them to be PPP supporters.
And that is the problem with this APNU/AFC government. They have been firing people, forcing top officials on leave, and engage in what the Opposition PPP claimed as ethnic or political cleansing.
The poor excuse given by the administration is that their contracts were expired; what a load of nonsense; they were fired because as the administration said earlier, because they were “PPP workers”. They backtracked to say they had no contract, and were not Public Servants and other foolish excuses. To save face after this massive blunder and public protest, the Minister of Indigenous Affairs has backpedaled to say they will re-employ them under a Hinterland and Youth Employment Service. One has to wonder if this backpedalling has to do with President David Granger addressing the National Toshaos Council.
Well, I know for a fact that there are quite a number of people working as Public Servants with no contracts or on contractual basis that they have not seen fit to fire because they are perceived to be government supporters.
This government came to power with pious promises of transparency, accountability and unity, not retribution. Their actions so far are quite the opposite.
Look, I am the first to agree that a new government need their “own people” in certain key positions to carry out their policies.
But this dismissing of Heads of Department and Boards of Corporations, getting rid of your experienced and technical personnel without DUE PROCESS, without having replacements or understudy, shows that this APNU/AFC government is clearly bent on getting rid of perceived PPP people and replace them with their party hacks.
Gone overboard are all those promises of advertising positions and filling them based on merit not party affiliation.
PATTERSON AND DINDYAL
Here is a case of gross hypocrisy by this government and Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson. Patterson is trying to divert attention that he meddled in the internal affairs of GPL by ordering the firing of two senior personnel, bypassing the Board, the CEO and Human Resources of GPL. This is the very action they criticized the PPP for. Bharat Dindyal was not fired because his contract was expired as Patterson would like us to believe. He was fired because in my opinion, he countermanded Patterson’s order, and rightly so.
Dindyal offered to stay on and the new government accepted his offer until they can find a replacement.
Patterson was also disingenuous when he said the GPL Board will run things until a replacement can be found. That is not true, because he should know that the Board ceases to function on orders of Joe Harmon. Avery senior member of the GPL Board told me the Board is not functioning and the Board that should do the firing was not even consulted.
IS GOVERNMENT AFRAID OF JAGDEO
Prior to taking their seats in Parliament, the opposition PPP gave the idea that the Coalition is afraid of Jagdeo in Parliament. I don’t think anyone took that seriously. But the actions of the Government in Parliament are giving credence to the idea. First, why break with the convention that the Leader of the Opposition speaks after the Prime Minister but before the Finance Minister? This was accorded to the late former President and later Opposition Leaders Desmond Hoyte, Robert Corbin and David Granger.
Why change now? Is Moses Nagamootoo so afraid that Jagdeo would destroy his speech, so he wants to speak after Jagdeo? It is clear that there is a fear for Jagdeo in the camps of the Government. If not so, why try to muzzle him? At this time of writing (Friday) the Speaker of the House is still to make a ruling. Is this government afraid of scrutiny? Why limit the scrutiny of the budget from the traditional seven days to three days?
What are they afraid of? They promised transparency and accountability on the campaign trail, and here they want to limit scrutiny of their budget, hiding behind technicalities. That it is only an option to go seven days. Again what is there to hide? Who is behind this, Nagamootoo and the AFC or APNU?
WHO IS IN CHARGE, GRANGER OR HARMON?
There was strong discussion on social media about President David Granger not having a formal press conference since becoming President some three months ago. Joe Harmon is the Cabinet Secretary but if you go by the pronouncements from Joe, you would think he is the President, and he is running the show. Poor Nagamootoo, he thought he would wield some power, but Joe Harmon seems to be the one with the power.
One gets the impression that the President is not fully aware of what is going on. There seems to be no cohesion on policies as Ministers contradict each other’s statements. The President’s Public Relations people are doing a very poor job on him. He is making the same mistake as former President Ramotar did, surround himself with party hacks instead of professional media or Public Relations personnel.
President Granger needs to step it up a notch to show he is in charge. Maybe then these indiscriminate firings will cease. He is a gentleman in the truest sense of the word and a God fearing man. He will not consent to taking bread out the mouth of 2000 odd Amerindians.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email [email protected] and Facebook
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