The honeymoon continues
Editorial
The honeymoon is still on. The President continues to hit the right note. At his press conference on Friday he stated unambiguously that his administration intended to honour the award to public servants arrived at by a majority decision of the arbitration panel led by Dr Aubrey Armstrong. The Government, he said, did not have the money to make the pay-out, but in the 45 day grace period which the administration had at its disposal before payment had to be effected, they would consider ways in which it could be done. The presidential tone continued. While as he had warned earlier an excessive increase could cause high inflation and cuts in social spending, his Government would mount a vigorous campaign internally and externally to minimise the likely negative impact of the award. He avoided too, any inflammatory suggestions on the matter of possible civil service retrenchment. The award had spoken, he said, of public service modernization, and the problem would be approached within that context. "There is not going to be any spiteful retrenchment," said he. This was all very encouraging. Of course, he did lament the lack of a consensus on the arbitration panel, but then no one will disagree that it would have been preferable to have had a unanimous decision rather than a majority one, even although the latter is not less binding than the former. A more problematical area, of course, was Dr Gobind Ganga's allegations about breaches of procedure in the operations of the tribunal. There was not much President Jagdepo could say about that since the Minsiter of Lbour had already locked the administration into a position in relation to it from a very early stage. In fact, it was as a consequence of his comments that the suspicion arose that the Government might not honour the award. As it is, we now have Chief Labour Officer Mohamed Akeel investigating alleged breaches of procedure in the operations of the tribunal, and the President saying that if the accustions were found to be true, it would have serious consequences for the arbitration process in Guyana in the future. Well, not quite. What will have serious consequences for the future of arbitration here is the fact that the Minister of Labour elected to investigate the workings of the panel in the first place. Once the administration had decided in principle to accept the award, Minister Jeffrey should not have entertained any suspicions publicly about the way in which the tribunal had functioned, let alone act on those suspicions by asking Mr Akeel to investigate. And if the Government was not certain initially whether it would accept the award or not, Minister Jeffrey still should not have proceeded as he did, leaving little room for retreat should that become necessary. What will happen now is that Guyana will earn an odious reputation abroad for sullying the good name of anyone who is indiscreet enough to accept the role of mediator or arbitrator. The next time we are seeking such a person, it may be difficult to find suitable candidates willing to undertake the job. There is something else too. With the contretemps, the impression has unwittingly been created that in circumstances where an issue involving the Government has gone to arbitration, they will accept a decision against them with a very bad grace, and there might even be consequences to pay. Dr Armstrong and Professor Thomas are the victims of consequences that it is almost certain they did not expect to pay and should not have to pay. And as for Dr Ganga, whose petulance of tone and incautious language were inappropriate in the circumstances, most of his public statements should at best have been made privately to the Government. This is not to say he should not have written a dissenting report; he genuinely disagreed with the majority decision, and so he was obliged to submit an alternative opinion. However, what should have been given a public airing were his technical objections and his arguments in support of an award he would have considered justified. As it is, all that has been lost in a flurry of ad hominem statements. The President disassociated himself and his Cabinet from any attempts to exert pressure on Dr Armstrong before the award was announced. This is good news. It might be advisable, however, for him to mount an internal investigation of those around the Government as well as members of the party to find out who it was who potentially could have compromised his administration by their thoughtless actions. In the meantime, the population is basking in the glow of the more relaxed atmosphere and conciliatory approach which the new President has brought to the political arena. Within three short weeks the ground rules have undergone some astounding changes. Let us hope they stay that way.
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