What kind of example are we setting? The video of Minister Raphel Trotman completely humiliating the former President and current Leader of the Opposition has gone viral. We have no doubt that has been archived as a political ad that will be aired in the Indian strongholds of the PPP. In the video Minister Trotman call the Skeldon Sugar Factor – that Mr. Jagdeo built – “A behemoth” (a huge monstrous creature). While he was saying that, his ministerial collogue and Minister of Finance, Mr. Winston Jordon, shouted, “200 million US.” (It actually cost the country $US280 million. That is the equivalent of about 60 billion Guyana dollars). He said Mr. Jagdeo behaves as if he is the world’s greatest economist but he is not, and therefore should not be lecturing the current administration. To much pounding on the desks on the government side of the House, Mr. Trotman called his fellow collogue (Dr. Jagdeo) “A Doctor of doom”. He then went on to enunciate the perceived failures of Mr. Jagdeo. “Skeldon is down: the Berbice River Bridge, we are barely holding it up: every sector that he (Jagdeo) touched is down: the National Insurance Scheme: the Marriot Hotel: just seven years ago we had become a pariah state, awash with drug money and corruption: (with obvious reference to the USA embassy revoking the PPP embers visas, he said) there are people in this House who could not travel abroad: who are the Pharaohs who have just showed up and tried to tell us how to run a country? The Opposition Leader has to remember he is in the opposition, and has to remain in the opposition; we will not be lectured…we will not take a lecture from you (Jagdeo)!” The camera did not show Mr. Jadgeo’s facial expression or his body language; neither did the video show if Mr. Jagdeo responded. However, the United Republican Party (URP), would like to ask the Guyanese people if they think that these very public, accusing and humiliating rants is the way to behave. We all know of the atrocities of the last PPP administration, however, this public display of contempt for the former President was over the top. And those sharing the video must know that it is very embarrassing to those who believe in the policies of Mr. Jagdeo. Then immediately on the back of this humiliating, viral, video from Minister Raphel Trotman, another video has gone viral. This time from the Coalition Minister Simona Brooms. Again, with obvious contempt for the former President and the Opposition, she walks around the Parliament with her selfie stick and in a mimicking, mocking, manner, she kept yelling “Boom out…!” At one point she said, “Look at me, you people have to come here, and to see the Parliament of Guyana. Right here, behind me here is the Opposition Leader seat. His name is Bharrat Jagdeo. Boom out…” In the video she referred to Mr. Jagdeo as “The Doctor of failure”. She said he is “Irrelevant and insignificant.” Again I ask, is this the way we want to portray the Parliament of Guyana; the highest legislative body in the country? These kinds of behaviors can only lend to the further deterioration of the political discourse in Guyana. These mannerisms do nothing to foster social cohesion and of course they do nothing to win people over to your side of the political divide. The URP calls for an immediate cessation to these embarrassing and humiliating kinds of performances on the national stage. Our children are watching and learning.
People who are hired during one administration should not be fired when that administration changes. The United Republican Party (URP) is concerned that several persons – both Afro and Indo-Guyanese – but mostly Indo-Guyanese, are being ousted from their jobs. One might argue that it can be racially biased for any political party to hire a disproportionate amount of party members and ethnically similar persons. However, to arbitrarily fire those said people, especially if it causes the displacement of those who did not support you or are racially diverse from you, is worse.
What we are seeing in Guyana is a swinging of the pendulum, from one direction to the next, in order to right the PPP’s wrongs. During the PPP 23 years in governance, there is amble proof that the Indian majority government showed preference to their Indian supporters. The most blatant of that fact was when it was pointed out by Dr. Luncheon that there was not a single Afro-Guyanese who served as Ambassadors for Guyana.
Additionally, most of the public services and state board’s jobs were stacked with Indians and PPP supporters. Also, many of the huge, multi-million contracts were also awarded to Indian owned businesses. These were all wrong behaviors on the part of the PPP and about which the URP spoke out against. However, many of these persons were not responsible for being hired. They have planned their lives around their jobs – some borrowed loans or have their children in private schools – and therefore it is unfair to arbitrarily fire these innocent people. They are mere collateral damage and are now suffering due to no fault of their own.
Are we to expect that if the PPP wins back the government that we will see the huge firing of those who were hired by the Coalition? These obvious political vindictiveness and blatant cronyism cannot be exercised to the benefit of Guyana. There has to come a point in time where the politics in Guyana is left at the level of the politicians and those close to them. The URP is not naive to the point of not understanding that elections have consequences. However, the small man should not be caught up in the shuffle that happens every time there is a political shake up.
So we ask the Granger-lead administration, in the interest of humanity and Social Cohesion, to immediately cease the practice of removing from office those who were hired by the previous administration. The country cannot move forward if we keep mired in these petty, political practices from successive parties. We all know that this needs to stop.