Dear Editor,
Reference is made to “Black professional community has suffered severe loss via public service terminations” (Nov 30) by Audreyanna Thomas. I agree with Ms. Thomas that workers who lost their jobs must be hurting if they have not found employment elsewhere. I also know that political appointees are not retained when there is a change in government. Political appointees also know they will lose their jobs and perks when their party loses power. Those who embrace professional ethic automatically resign when their party loses power. It is a standard practice in every democracy. Ms. Thomas cannot claim ignorance of this principle and practice.
She complains that some 200 government workers, mostly African APNU (and AFC coalition) affiliated activists, were terminated by the PPP administration after it assumed office in August 2020. She neglected to mention that they were political appointees who were hired by APNU when it replaced PPP as the government in May 2015. She too was hired at GuySuCo as PR head after APNU was elected to office, and replaced the incumbent of that position. What is startling is that Ms. Thomas neglected to mention that several Indian political appointees, including professionals, were terminated by the Granger administration. She focused primarily on Africans. As political appointees, regardless of their race, workers, including those who are professionals, were terminated after the PPP assumed office because they failed to do the honourable thing, that is, to resign after their party lost power as is the global custom. PPP justifiably hired its own political activists – Africans, Indians, Mixed, Amerindians, and others who supported it in the election. Surely, Ms. Thomas didn’t expect the PPP to hire or retain staff that opposed it during the election campaign. And several professionals who were not openly politically aligned of all ethnicities, were retained or hired by the PPP.
An examination of hiring of Permanent Secretaries, as an illustration, shows that one half were Indians, a third Africans, and almost a fifth of Mixed background. That is a racial balance that was alien to the rule of the previous government when 16 of 17 PS were African. The lone Indian was later replaced by another African — 100% of one race in a racially divisive country. Ms. Thomas expressed concern about the loss of income of the 200 terminated African workers and its impact ($720M annually) on the economy. Similar concern of loss of income of sugar workers (most being Indians) was not expressed when she was head of PR of GuySuCo. Some 7,000 sugar workers were terminated in 2017 and she did not protest against the closure of the four sugar estates or their loss of income. An additional 1,972 Amerindians were terminated by the APNU government. She did not express any sympathy to their loss of income.
The income of those 7,000 workers would have been several times more than the $720M purported loss by APNU aligned workers. The overall effect of keeping the sugar estates running and all sugar workers in employment, as well as the dismissed Amerindians on payroll would have been substantial to the country’s economy. The collection of taxes and the spread effects of spending would have neutralized the subsidized costs of keeping the four estates running. The closure of the four estates led to depressed communities, suicides, and rise in crimes, prostitution, alcoholism, domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy, and so many other social ills that cost the country much more than the purported savings from the closure of shuttering the estates. I should point out that around 1986, the PNC government terminated some 2,000 bauxite workers, almost all being their supporters. There was muted protest over the loss of income. And it was during the same period when the PNC government laid off over 6,000 public service workers. Protest was muted.
Perhaps it might be desirable if Parliament could consider how much political appointees are needed, and lay out clearly that their tenure ends when their party’s control of government ends. Of course, political appointees may be retained by the incoming government if they do require. And political appointees must be informed as part of their contract that they serve only at the pleasure of the government that appoints them, and that when the government loses power they should automatically tender their resignation, even if they were given a contract that extends beyond the life of the current government. I must commend Mr. Mark Kirton for automatically tendering his resignation when the APNU lost power in 2020.
Sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram
