Ordeal of Guyana
Rickey Singh
NO POLITICAL party or trade union would claim paternity of those who have been engaging in physical violence, including attacks on the police and media, looting and other criminal activities in Georgetown during the past weeks of strike by public sector workers. Well, that is to be expected in the current political scenario where it has not been easy to separate some claimed industrial relations activities from what have been manifesting themselves in the form of anti-government, destabilisation politics in Georgetown involving elements known to be very hostile to the PPP/Civic Government. But there has been no outright and specific condemnation of the violence, looting and general disruption in the normal life of Georgetown from the Government's main opponent, the People's National Congress (PNC) - the party that had threatened to make the country "ungovernable" - or from the trade unions representing striking public sector workers. Disassociating itself from the violence and criminal activities, as the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) did by late last week, is not the same as an unequivocal condemnation of the disturbing levels of intimidation and violence, costly illegal and criminal activities that are only adding to Guyana's social and economic woes and exacerbating racial divisions. A threat to "burn government buildings" and create disorder should the Government declare "even a limited state of emergency" as reported in yesterday's Nation newspaper of Barbados by a West Indian journalist on a visit to Georgetown, hardly reflects to the credit of the union as sourced. The mediation team comprising representatives of civil society appeared to be finally making a breakthrough, at the time of writing, in resolving the impasse between the government and the unions on the terms for arbitration of the dispute that started some seven weeks ago with the GPSU's demand for a 40 per cent pay hike. The decision of the Arbitration Tribunal will be binding on the parties. Assuming the strike is called off for a resumption of work tomorrow, while the Arbitration Tribunal settles down to its challenging task - given the current fiscal and economic problems and the workers burden of low wages and salaries -the focus may once again turn to the general intolerable political climate in the country.
The 'Phantoms' In the same way that some politicians and unionists were behaving last week as if the hurling of hand grenades, shooting of a rocket launcher, the physical attacks, robberies and looting were the work of phantoms, there are those who expect a `phantom' government in Georgetown to deliver on the demands they keep making. Take, for example, the position of the PNC's leader, Desmond Hoyte, who continues to expose his bitterness and frustration with the decision of the Guyanese voters for again returning the PPP/Civic to government in December 1997, as they had done at free and fair elections in October 1992 after 28 years of rule by the PNC: While claiming that it does not recognise the legitimacy of the PPP/Civic Government of President Janet Jagan, the PNC remains a beneficiary of this same administration by the seats it managed to retain in Parliament, including that of Hoyte himself. It is this President who Hoyte finds difficult to meet face to face to discuss the nation's problems, who had to give her assent to the legislation that facilitated the PNC to keep their seats in Parliament after the months of post-election political tantrums and boycott. It is this same "unrecognised" government that had to establish the bipartisan Constitution Reform Commission to make changes to the `Burnhamist' constitution. That is the constitution which Forbes Burnham and Desmond Hoyte had worked so well in the interest of "party paramountcy" and, in the process, reduced Guyana to one of the "20 poorest nations of the world" and lowered public service workers to the category of the "lowest paid" in the Caribbean region. It was the former Vice-Chancellor of the UWI, Alister McIntyre, who had written of the creeping "Haitianisation" process in Guyana long before the change in government in 1992. But the PNC does not want to remember. Instead, it has now extended its political gymnastics on "non-recognition" to also demand that the Jagan government - the one it does not recognise - should pay the 40 per cent increase demanded by the striking unions. This demand from a party that had such a poor record in pay increases to public sector workers over its 28 years in power. Perhaps the PPP/Civic administration have good grounds for humouring the PNC by now asking whether the public sector workers should wait until a "recognised" government in the new clothes of `party paramountcy' comes to power. The only problem, of course, is that with free and fair election, there can be no guarantees of the return to that kind of government again. A further indication of how pointless, in the current climate, it may be for any meeting between Mrs Jagan and Mr Hoyte, came at the beginning of this month when the PNC leader finally gave what he considered a "reply" to President Jagan's letter of April 6 for a resumption of dialogue between the PPP and PNC in the context of the CARICOM-brokered `Herdmanston Accord' of January 1998: After the impasse had lasted for more than two months, Jagan wrote Hoyte in her capacity as President of Guyana, suggesting that the inter-party dialogue be restarted with new teams and that the dialogue "should concentrate not on Government and Opposition engagements but on National Issues and Policies". Among those issues she identified were: "Race relations and legislation to concretise equal opportunities; National Development Strategy; health and education policy, public sector reform; taxation policy, social safety net creation and poverty alleviation". The PNC leader's reply was eventually sent in a letter dated May 24, the text of which appeared in his party's organ `New Nation' May 30 - June 5 edition, addressed to Mrs Janet Jagan, PPP/Civic representative at Freedom House. He said her letter on Office of the President letterhead may have been an "oversight" in that she should have sent it in her capacity as representative of the PPP/Civic. He made no mention of the issues and policies raised by Jagan for a resumed inter-party dialogue. Politics and Justice For how much longer must this joke be perpetuated at Guyana's expense. The answer partly lies with the administration of justice in this country. The PNC's leader must know that Mrs Jagan of Freedom House, as distinct from the lawful head of state, President Jagan, who wrote him from the President's Office cannot exercise the authority to give effect to the coming recommendations of the Constitution Reform Commission. Nor can Mrs Jagan of Freedom House ensure that a resolution is found to the pay dispute with public sector unions. But the President of Guyana can so determine, and this is what Mrs Jagan of the President's Office has been endeavouring to do. Yet, there seems some hope now that the inter-party dialogue resumed for a few hours last Monday under the Office of the CARICOM Facilitator, Maurice King. But there will be no such further meeting before August 6, since the PNC's representatives have to honour, as they said, "previous overseas commitments". Keep following the Guyana political merry-go-round - if you can with a clear head and a smile.
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