Dear Editor,
It is with great concern that the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FUTUG) an organisation which represents the majority of unionized workers in Guyana, has noted a recent decision by the opposition parties to walk out of Parliament on March 27 2008 under the pretext that their amendment to the motion on a stakeholder’s decision was not accepted by the ruling party. Any amendment would have had to be as a result of another meeting of all the stakeholders who had agreed on this document.
FITUG participated in all of the discussions that were held at the Office of the President under the chairmanship of no one else than His Excellency the President of Guyana, Mr Bharrat Jagdeo, and we could recall that at every sitting a press release was crafted with the consent of all the stakeholders including the opposition parties before it was released to the public. FITUG would wish to ask the leaders of all opposition parties this basic question.
During the last discussion on March 12 2008 was it not the consensus of all the stakeholders that the six Constitutional Commissions namely:
i) Public Procurement Commission
ii) Ethnic Relations Commission
iii) Human Rights Commission
iv) Women and Gender Equity Commision
v) Indigenous People Commission and
vi) Rights of the Child Commission
would form a key basis of the governance framework and should be in place within ninety (90) days from that date?
If the opposition parties had a difficulty with that proposal, when the question was asked if everyone agreed, they should have expressed their concern. There was nothing in that consensus that spoke of the effects of Article 13 of the Constitution neither was there a consensus on political parties having access to or not having access to state media or the freedom of information legislation.
During the spirit of the stakeholders meeting, great emphasis was placed on unity. The participants have all agreed that we are all against crime and that those who perpetrated the slaughter at Lusignan must be condemned and brought to justice as quickly as possible. That being the fact, the opposition parties walking out of Parliament during the debate is sending a wrong message to the nation. On the other hand, it would only enhance the criminals and their criminal enterprise. This, Mr Editor, is of great concern to FITUG, since one of our members was among those slaughtered at Lusignan. We are calling on the nation to let the political parties understand that Guyana comes first and we could no longer tolerate political manoeuvring at the detriment of our population.
We are anxiously looking forward to the views of the other social partners who like us have spent long hours at personal and administrative sacrifices in order that the process of unity could be achieved on this national issue.
Yours faithfully,
Kenneth Joseph
General Secretary
Federation of Independent Trade Unions
of Guyana
