Dear Editor,
Violations of the law keep emerging in Guyana. The perpetrator is not a citizen, it is the PPP Government. The clever in the party and government love to talk about the law, then there is reality that points to the loss of the law, through repeated abrogation. What began as a crack is now a long, slow-motion crash; what was a creep is now a compendium of how adherence to the law is given lip service, while official practices identify all that have gone wrong here and leave a trail inseparable from a sewer. It is why there was a UN Human Rights Committee that had so much to ask, and the furor it created here.
A huge contract is questioned and challenged, subject to some sort of investigation. It has been a couple of months, and whatever the nature of the investigation, time has stood still. But not for the PPP Government. From reports, with images to backup, work seems to have commenced. Whither, may I dare to ask, the respect for procurement laws, regard for the objection process? The investigation, if what is going on could be called that, should have been long finished, and a conclusion delivered. The law was complied with, policies, procedures, and the processes all followed to the letter, given a big thumbs up. Or it was not, therefore this is what is recommended. We are still watching and waiting but work on the approved project has stirred to life. Obedience to the fullest of the law, or brushing aside an inconvenience, an element in the nuisance game?
Next, school is back, and children prepare for three crucial examinations. The teachers’ union has telegraphed its readiness to return to strike action and the street. For me, the issue is unambiguous: a valid collective bargaining agreement has been trampled upon, at will. I remind my betters that a collective bargaining agreement cannot be consigned to, restrained as, a document of guidance, or a mission statement, or the matter of a component in a manifesto. A collective bargaining agreement is based on the Laws of Guyana. The Labour Act, the Trade Union Recognition Act and, if those two still do not suffice, then such an agreement has its roots right in the provisions of the constitution. For any party to such an agreement to turn their back on, or spit upon it and then kick it aside, looks like a clear transgression of the law. At least, that is my interpretation. But the PPP Government is the epitome of a lawful regime, with law-abiding officers to match, so I must be on the wrong side of this matter, this contention.
Then, Guyana has a Cybercrime Law, a timely development. Yet, there are repeated, grievous, scurrilous ruptures of its provisions. By operators, functionaries, agents, and instruments deep inside the PPP Government, without the long arm of the law extending and hoisting into full public view the known desecrators of the laws of this land. Some may say it is a failure of the police. I beg to attest (attest, not assert) that it is a byproduct of a PPP Government addicted to treating the law like a basketball to be bounced around to suit the vengefulness and meanness and dirtiness of its leaders. Part of the collateral damage envelops the Guyana Police Force, which leads to still further distortions of the law. The law, the law, I would give a kingdom for the law in Guyana. Somebody must have heard me because I now have a ladder. The rungs on the upper portion of it are missing and the others below hang by a thread. Looks more like a landmine made of barbwire, than a ladder made of the kind of steel that is rigid in that it doesn’t bend. Not for friends nor family nor fools. Not for comrades who are criminals.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
