Trade unionists Lincoln Lewis and Norris Witter along with social activist Mark Benschop are contending that Guyana has never been this bad since the legacy of Dr Cheddi Jagan’s pre-colonial struggles is being tarnished by what they see as President Bharrat Jagdeo’s “tyrannical reign.”
In a joint press release the trio posited that fifty-nine years after the formation of the PPP in Guyana, the party of Dr Cheddi Jagan has gone astray from “its earlier design to create unity and provide Guyanese a worthwhile local alternative to colonial rule.”
Lewis, Witter and Benschop noted that in its earliest form the PPP as the first mass-based political party in Guyana comprised Guyanese of all races united against the colonial government, then perceived to be a common enemy.
But now, seventeen years later under the rule of those who condemned former President LFS Burnham and his then ruling PNC, “those of us with memories to tap into and with only a tiny shred of decency and integrity will recall better days, better governance, better relationships, better distribution of the nation’s resources and better respect for the law of the land and the constitution,” the trio asserted.
According to them, in 2009 “one sees the party, no longer as that capable of united struggles for development”.
They said further that the party of Dr Jagan has long departed from its original formation and nationalist agenda and its worst downturn is the period following the death of its leader, but more specifically during the rule of President Jagdeo.
Under Jagdeo, the trio charged that the PPP government has been implicated with a brutal, murdering, drug trafficking machine managed by Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan “for which the authors, planners and architects are all yet to be revealed.” The government has consistently and vehemently denied these claims.
Meanwhile, Lewis, Witter and Benschop are calling on the PPP to decide how it will be remembered. They contended that while Dr Jagan represents a period that the party wants to enshrine in the memory of Guyanese, the era post Dr Jagan and that of Bharrat Jagdeo “is fast becoming the most outstanding and defining period of the PPP.” They also observed that many will also remember the struggles for ‘free and fair elections’. . .
However, they pointed out, the constitution which was condemned by the PPP but now embraced with minor changes leaves the power it was intended to give the President largely intact.
Under the Jagdeo administration, they added, the independent trade union movement has experienced the imposition of wage increases for public servants which is in violation of the International Labour Organisation Conventions.
Moreover, they asserted, it has also been subjected to the withdrawal of state funding given to the Critchlow Labour College and the Guyana Trades Union Congress since the 1960s.
“These acts are the opposite to the post-1992 government of Cheddi Jagan”, the trio said.
According to the trio, “seventeen years post-1992 and Guyanese are again faced by a common enemy. . . this time not a colonial but a local government. We are struggling, not under the banner of ‘free and fair elections’ but (for) the very and most basic human rights and justice”. In their view, the nation is “witnessing efforts to ignore the evidence unfolding in the US courts” in the Simels trial while there is no apparent move to have an investigation into allegations of the government’s association with drug trafficker Roger Khan.
They said further that no move has been made by President Jagdeo to have the inland revenue, judicial courts and other relevant authorities seize all the assets and gains associated with Roger Khan and other Guyanese held by the US for drug trafficking.
“The criminal drug empire still reigns in Guyana and those with whom Khan was associated are allowed to walk the streets of Guyana free,” the trio declared.
