Housing and Water Ministry workers yesterday tried to evict the People’s Parliament movement from occupying the Parliament Square along High Street, removing placards, banners and posters that were reclaimed within minutes and replaced at the site.
“We are astounded by the high-handed manner of the Ministry of Housing and Water, whose Minister [Irfaan Ali] had been all over the airwaves making false claims against the People’s Parliament. Their conduct, in coming at 4 o’clock to intimidate and harass citizens is reminiscent of the excess of the worst forms of dictatorship,” Tory Kellman, a member of the group, said yesterday, reading from a prepared statement to reporters at the site.
Kellman said the members of the movement rejected the actions of the ministry as a violation of their constitutional rights and they have vowed to continue to exercise their right to assembly, to express themselves freely and to hold the government and the National Assembly accountable.
Last week, the People’s Parliament had been given 72 hours by the Central Housing and Planning Authority to vacate the area.
According to Kellman, around 4am yesterday a Ministry of Housing pick-up truck with six workers under the protection of a police vehicle descended on the site and removed the items that had been placed there. He said one of the workers, who refused to identify himself, noted that employees of a contractor had expressed fear about working in the unfriendly environment created by the People’s Parliament.
“The People’s Parliament has been out here, in rain and shine, since August 15, shortly after the National Assembly went on what turned out to be a ten weeks recess. The ministry cannot point to a single incident involving our members. On the contrary, our presence has helped to prevent crimes,” Kellman claimed.
He said when the workers arrived, they were continuing their round-the-clock vigil and they tried to explain to them that they were merely exercising their constitution right and even offered to read a copy of a letter from the Mayor and City Council authorising them to display their banners and placards.
However, the workers said they were merely carrying out “orders from above” and proceeded to removed the items and later constructed two signboards, which stated “Property of the Government of Guyana. No Trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted” and “Construction Site. Works in Progress. No Unauthorised persons allowed.”
During the press briefing yesterday, both signboards were on the ground.
Tyrone Talbot, another participant in the movement, questioned how they could trespass on what belongs to them, while adding that the Constitution gives them a right to assembly and does not put a limitation on how long they can protest.
“We were here for two months and not a single day of that two months did they find that we were trespassing. We have become a thorn in the sides of the government,” he said.
“The nefarious activities of this government continues to affront and abridge the people’s right and we are saying to them no, we have been here for two months… we have engaged on a conservative level 20,000 Guyanese sharing their various concerns,” Talbot added.
Talbot further noted that there are 65 “elite” persons who sit in the National Assembly who do nothing for the people, while the movement has sought to represent the people without a voice through a petition listing various things that they want to be done. Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman was on Friday presented with a petition signed by more than 6,000 citizens calling on the National Assembly to take action on the demands of the people.
“We will remain here, we will remain here indefinitely,” Talbot pledged. “We shall not be moved and let’s get ready to rumble,” he added.
Another participant, Sharon Harding, pointed out that they were at the location looking out for the people while the parliamentarians found it fitting to go into recess and to have a fun time.
“Even to when parliament took its place yesterday [Monday], I can’t imagine that these people spending $1.4 million of my taxpayer’s money on their meals and yet my issues weren’t addressed in there yesterday. Because all they were doing is jumping around and monkeying themselves and cursing at each other. That wasn’t my issue,” Harding said.
The people of Guyana have serious issues that they have been bringing to the movement day and night. “The ordinary man and the ordinary woman walking the streets, they are crying and they are weeping. Who was there to listen to them? Members of the People’s Parliament, because the parliamentarians were on holiday,” Harding emphasised.
Destruction
Meanwhile, the participants in the People’s Parliament also highlighted the situation of Monty Johnson, an employee of RK’s Security Service, whom they claimed was being denied his salary on the basis that he was responsible for the destruction of the signs that were placed at the site by the Central Housing & Planning Authority.
“We are now hosting a collection so that he can feed his family because RK’s Security Service has refused to pay him his salary…so that they he can pay for a sign and damages that he did not commit,” Talbot claimed.
Kellman said that they had raised $10,000 so far yesterday morning to give Johnson to take home and they were hoping to raise another $25,000 that would represent his salary.
“That is what we are about. We are about people. We are about people’s development. It is not a war zone. We are not here to challenge and intimidate ordinary citizens. We are here for their development,” Kellman said.
When contacted, RK’s Security Chief Executive Officer Roshan Khan denied that Johnson’s salary was being withheld, explaining that it was a $10,000 salary advance that was being withheld pending an inquiry into the defacing of the ministry’s signboards.
Khan pointed out that the company would usually give the advance to workers to help “cushion” them until the next pay day, providing that they performed exceptionally well during the month.
He added that Johnson was there to protect the site and the property of the ministry and he reported in a statement to the company that he saw a tall man, whom he could identify, climb a ladder and spray something on the signboard. Khan said Johnson did nothing, even though he was there to protect the site.
The persons who defaced the signboards, which the ministry was forced to remove, are miscreants, he declared, while adding that his workers have their job to do and the company is not interfering with them and they should not interfere with its work
Johnson told reporters that when he approached the bank on Monday he found that his salary was not there.
When he approached his superiors at the office, he was told that his salary was being held. “They say how deh hold the salary because a gah pay back fuh dey sign board. Me ain’t destroy nothing but that is what deh saying,” Johnson explained.
He said that when he left the site on the morning of the destruction the signs were still up and he did not know of any destruction. He said his supervisor told him he could do what he wanted. “…So, I feeling the squeeze. Me family feeling the squeeze. Me girl feeling the squeeze. I can’t do nothing about it,” he noted.
Harding said she was at the location when Ministry of Housing officials removed the signboards and she could not understand why the security company is withholding the man’s salary.
