Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 27, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Today is the official holiday to celebrate our 53rd anniversary of Independence. There will be parties, state functions, celebratory events, etc. But on the morning of May 28, we will wake up to face the reality of a beautiful, rich, large country named Guyana whose nature grieves for most of its citizens except the very rich folks, who together with their families can buy anything they want in this world and travel to any part of this world.
The exception is the politicians and their friends who enjoy using the meagre resources for anything other than developmental purposes. It has been reported that a certain state employee, a friend of the residents of the corridors of power, receives a salary equivalent to his counterpart in the richest countries in the world.
This is in a country where the Finance Minister says there wasn’t fiscal space to pay public servants a bonus in 2018 but there was fiscal space to erect large billboards all over the country with his fiscal face printed on each, announcing the coming of the national budget. Each billboard cost $700,000.
After 53 years of Independence, philosophical caricatures characterise the landscape in Guyana. Do you know, Guyana may be the only functioning democratic society in the world that does not have an active human rights entity?
There is a constitutional body named the Human Rights Commission, which came on paper twenty years ago as part of the work of the constitutional reform under President Janet Jagan. The Commission has never come to life.
I lived under all the presidents of Guyana and since Jagdeo through Ramotar to Granger, the cries for justice, fair play, and fair treatment have only been exceeded by the Burnham era. Under Desmond Hoyte and Cheddi Jagan, there was an atmosphere of optimism. People felt they could have complained and be listened to.
From Jagdeo and his successors, right up to Independence 2019, the human rights forums are non-existent. There isn’t at least one human rights organisation in this country where aggrieved citizens could walk through the door, be greeted by an activist, and his/her complaint is acted upon.
I cannot speak for the other well-known media operatives but I know from my experience, I get countless of requests from poor, helpless people who have a genuine grievance. No doubt my media colleagues get their share too. In other words, the human rights forums to which aggrieved citizens can turn to are the media houses.
This is in 2019, 53 years after Independence. In a country that has an enduring authoritarian instinct among democratic societies, there isn’t s a functioning human rights organisation. Where do people turn to when the state, private employers, the judicial system and society in general dishonour them and violate their rights?
After 53 years of Independence, Guyana does not have a functioning consumer protection agency. It does but it operates on paper only.
After 53 years of Independence, we have not produced any leader driven by deep democratic instincts. And I am boldly including the leadership of our current Coalition Government. After 53 years of Independence, we have left intact some heinous colonial portraits whose canvas should have been destroyed 53 years ago. The one that pains me intensely is the Labour Department.
How any post-colonial government can retain the structure of the Labour Department is a horrific indictment of our post-colonial leaders. The Labour Department’s essential role is to protect employees and prevent their exploitation by cruel bosses.
The nature of such a function compels the Labour Department to be a constitutional body whose officials are insulated from the tentacles of opportunistic state officials and exploitative employers.
The Labour Department is simply a section of a ministry staffed by civil servants who are paid on the civil service scale. I have heard two refrains from employees since I was a young man. One is that when it comes to complaints against state institutions, the Labour Department is either biased or intimidated.
I know from my days in the UG union, the Labour Department sides with its employer, the government. Yes, the government employs the staff of the Labour Department. The second refrain is that complainants are helpless against the power of big money when they describe their grievances.
After 53 years of Independence, we inherited the Ombudsman from our colonial masters. Yet that institution has remained unchanged. It has no authority to correct any violation it has discovered or any wrongdoing, however, egregious or illegal.
Why after 53 years of Independence, we have never sought to bring greater freedoms to the descendants of slavery and indentureship? But we love to criticise the White man.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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