Former PPP stalwart Ralph Ramkarran believes that political interference led to the dismissal of the power company’s Chief Exe-cutive Officer Bharat Dindyal last week and he has warned about a growing perception among Indo-Guyanese that the government is discriminating against them.
In his Sunday Stabroek column yesterday, the former Speaker of the National Assembly said that while he does not accept that there is such discrimination, the growing perception is a negative phenomenon and should not be dismissed because once such perceptions take hold, they are very difficult to overcome. Noting that Guyana’s politics are organized for the expression of ethnic sentiments and are driven by ethnic considerations, Ramkarran said that there are growing concerns within the Indian Guyanese community that the government has embarked on large-scale discrimination against them.
“This is being fuelled by politically driven accusations by the PPP using the same emotive language used by the PNC/PNCR in the 1990s – ‘ethnic cleansing’,” he wrote.
Ramkarran said that the manner of the dismissal of Dindyal, who according to him, was “one of the best and most dedicated managers in the state system,” will send shivers down the spines of the ethnically sensitive. “In justifying his dismissal, a not too subtle attempt was made to portray his continued employment without a written contract, even though he was continuing on the job only until a replacement could be found, as some sort of sinister plot,” he said.
He pointed to a Stabroek News article reporting Dindyal’s dismissal and said that if true, then Dindyal resisted gross and continued insubordination from his deputy, which was supported by Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson.
Stabroek News reported on Saturday that Dindyal was let go as CEO of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) after an ongoing clash with his deputy, whom he had accused of overstepping his authority by trying to send senior managers on leave and forcibly removing them from company offices. The government had announced that Patterson, who was drawn into the conflict during an expletive-laced tirade by Dindyal that was uploaded on social media, advised Cabinet on Thursday evening to end the CEO’s engagement with GPL as of Friday.
In a statement, government had said that Patterson reached the decision after examining several factors, including his own performance appraisal and Dindyal’s “intervention” in staff matters, some of which was video recorded and viewed on social media. It noted that Dindyal’s substantive contract had come to an end on December 31st, 2014 and it was not renewed. However, Dindyal continued to serve as GPL CEO based on what was described as “an understanding” between himself and the previous subject minister, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.
According to Ramkarran, Dindyal’s display of rage is not what did him in. “His dismissal was prompted by his resistance to the insubordination and the exposure of the political involvement. He has stood up and resisted in times past in different circumstances. This political culture in much of the Third World that infects our political system as well, embraces the type of gross political interference and insubordination which Dindyal perceived and which he protested. Political interference crushes all those in its path who attempt to resist. There were many from recent PPP governments. Dindyal is the first known victim since the elections and will not be the last unless the government breaks with this culture,” he wrote.
He said that the government should have no doubt in its mind that these acts will all add up to the growing perception by the Indian Guyanese community that discrimination against them will become a part of their lot under the APNU+AFC coalition. “The government must understand that the rise of such sentiments are not determined by constructive examination of facts and rational conclusions arising therefrom. They emerge from perceptions rooted in historical circumstances that are given expression by our two party system which drive and sustain the perceptions,” he asserted.
Earlier, he had noted that with the advent of the APNU+AFC government, many Indian Guyanese have become fearful of discrimination and, in particular, fearful of the loss of promotional or job opportunities, loss of access which is vital for overcoming bureaucratic inertia or manoeuvring around bottlenecks in the conduct of business.
“The fear is being generated by the reality of Indians losing their jobs, notwithstanding that most of those are political (appointees) and are expected to resign upon a change of government or are public servants who have elected to climb a political platform. While on the ground there is little substance to any charge of discrimination, there have been worrying developments,” Ramkarran wrote.
He said that the negative phenomenon was given impetus when Clairmont Lye and Andaiye, “two of the most powerful and respected voices in civil society,” raised the issue by protesting in letters to SN the ethnically unbalanced and as Andaiye mentioned, the gender deficient, state boards which had been announced. To the government’s credit, it swiftly recognized the complaint and undertook to review the appointments, Ramkarran said.
He noted too that the dismissal of 2000 community support officers in Amerindian communities has been described by the PPP as an example of the ‘worst case of ethnic cleansing.’
“I cannot say if the employment of 2000 persons was for a political objective as alleged by the government. It seems unlikely having regard to the large number involved. The government, which has the responsibility, has provided no information of a credible nature to the public about this large-scale dismissal. The sudden loss of income by 2000 in the most deprived community in Guyana has been met by public indifference. While I would be prepared to give the government the benefit of the doubt, it would be conditional on an acceptable explanation for this destructive act with a stroke of the pen and the presentation of a plan for the injection of the same level of resources in the Amerindian communities, which have suffered this devastating loss,” he wrote.
