Dear Editor,
The Private Sector Commission (PSC), through its chairman, Ronald Webster, was reported as angry that its petition to parliament on the anti-money laundering bill through the very partisan PPP/Civic MP Manzoor Nadir was rejected by the joint opposition. One wonders where the PSC has been over time in terms of pushing the ruling party to engage corruption, the lack of local government elections and the plethora of troubles the government’s actions has wreaked on the country, the economy and the international reputation of the country. In spite of the serious deterioration in the social and political fabric over decades the PSC’s apparent logic is that Guyana is a “democracy” and in effect a “normal” country. It has a right to hold to that view. But the PSC which is bold in hammering the opposition for exercising their right to protest the lack of accountability at all levels cannot muster the backbone to protest the general lack of transparency (and selective legislative priorities) of the very state and government machinery it seeks to support for its own partial interests.
Dr Clive Thomas has written for decades on the need of Guyanese society to connect “bread and justice” – showing that, in sum, the struggle for economic emancipation in this society cannot delink economic from social and political rights. This inflexible disconnect between the economy and social and political issues has palpably worsened since the PPP/ Civic came to power. But there is an interesting piece of history that is in stark contrast to the current public behaviour of the PSC that acts with its head in the ground in ignoring the other severe aspects of Guyana’s degradation. In 1979, under the authoritarian rule of then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, sixty-six citizens representing business, the legal profession, the arts, education and other sectors of civil society signed a letter calling for a “broad based government of national reconstruction” ‒ precisely what is needed in Guyana today. In the public document the signatories stated in part: “We, the undersigned citizens of Guyana, recognizing that our country is in a state of deep political and economic crisis which has arisen partly because of the erosion of the legal and constitutional rights of Guianese citizens, hereby announce that we would be prepared to support a broad based government of national reconstruction in which all the recognized political parties and other legitimate interest groups such as the trade unions and business and professional interests would have representatives but which no group or party or ideology would dominate.” Space does not allow the full list of signatories but they included Ernest Christiani, Jules de Cambra, Gordon Forte, Ray Robinson, Vic Insanally, Colin Cholmondeley, Jennifer Hastings, Clairmont Lye, David de Caires, Dr Horace Taitt, Stephen Camacho, Ron Savory, Claude Klautky, Chris Fernandes, Lloyd Joseph, RCG Potter, David Spence, Alfred Baburam, Dr Bud Mangal, Arthur Belgrave, Lilian Panday, Claudette LaBennett, Walter Spooner and David Yhann.
Thirty-four years after this letter was written the Private Sector Commission, in so far as it represents a section of civil society, continues to have a loud voice where its own interests are concerned, but its public vocal chords and actions appear very constrained when it concerns the depredations of the PPP/C state and government and the general political and social malaise that is profoundly connected with the economy and business of the nation.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Westmaas
