Dear Editor,
In 1926 Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow and other Caribbean trade union leaders began the fight for every person at the age of 21 to be given the right to vote; the chance to vote. Every voter must recognise and protect the valiant struggles waged to secure the right to vote. Our power is our vote! When we vote we exercise our power to elect and to dismiss; to hire and to fire! We hire the politicians to do our work that we define for them and we must fire them when they fail to perform. We, the people, are the employers.
Our tax dollars pay elected politicians and government officials, every one of them without exception. Through our vote we employ them on a contract for service with expectations. We employ them with the understanding that their manifestoes and the good face that they showed when they were canvassing for the job will be exercised in the line of duty for the five years of contract, to be reviewed and renewed. Depending on the quality of their performance
during the period of contractual obligation when the contract is up it can be renewed at elections time.
We are in the period when the contract of the PPP is being reviewed and come Monday 11th May as they apply for extension of the contract for service we must be able to determine the quality of their stewardship during this period of review. We must look back for that is the yardstick of measurement that will determine whether they are employable or not. The PPP, the Ramotar regime, do not qualify for re-employment! And you dear Guyanese voters must tell them that, must show them that and when you put your X on that ballot they must have a clear understanding that they have failed.
They have not worked according to job description. They have not worked in the interest of their employers, that is, every one of you out there, those who support and those who do not. Remember, even if you did not vote for a particular party, when that party is elected into government their duty is to serve not only those who elected them, but to serve the people of Guyana, impartially. Without discrimination. With recrimination. Without prejudice. After 11th May we should not have a PPP government or an APNU+AFC government, we must have a Government of Guyana. A government of the people, by the people and for the people of Guyana.
After elections, regardless of which political party we support, we all share the same geographic space, as our motto says, we are One People, One Nation, One Destiny. We must co-exist and we must co-exist in peace and with justice for all, whether economically, socially, politically. We must be prepared to hold all politicians, those who are at the helm of government and those who seek to be at the helm, accountable. They must account! The PPP/C must account and the APNU+AFC must account as per contractual obligation. We hire them, we pay them, and we can fire them!
On 11th May we hire and we fire! And with the knowledge and understanding of the issues facing the Guyanese labour force -past, present and potential- GTUC says without apology that we must fire the PPP/C! They must go and come again. They must improve, they must relearn and come again and so it must be with all when they do not perform. Let them go, retool and come again! We do it in the workforce. If you do not perform you have to go out and improve your skills, acquire new tools, whether it is re-certification or additional certification, and reapply for employment.
To keep the politicians in government now employed is to accept mediocrity in the business of running Guyana; it is to fail Guyana that belongs to all of us. It is to say we are poor businessmen and businesswomen. We have given those elected politicians, our employees, enough chances over the last 23 years. We have been trampled. Many of the taxpayers, the employers, have grown to be fearful of these employees. They have bullied us. They have threatened to slap and strip us. They have misappropriated the finances of Guyana. They have corrupted our systems. They have associated with criminals and narco militarisation and criminalisation. They have engaged in wanton lawlessness.
It is instructive to note the words of Dr. Bheri Ramsaran (shameless man, shameful doctor, a disgrace to the medical profession) that he would get women to strip a young activist questioning his performance.
The worst post independent period of bloodshed came during Jagdeo and Ramotar, where we see government, the state associated with narco criminality and turf wars. Lots of persons died in the process including businessmen, the mass murders in Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek, Sash Sawh and Ronald Waddell and most recently Courtney Crum-Ewing.
Every person must ensure that they vote. They must also encourage those who they know to vote. Similarly they must encourage those persons to mobilise and encourage others. We must multiply the effort to bring good governance to Guyana and hire new employees for the job of managing the state of Guyana!
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
