Dear Editor,
Allow me to correct a piece of misinformation that was carried in a letter in the Stabroek News of August 1, 2017 under the caption ‘GPSU parties should agree to read from the same page’. This is necessary because I feel that the readers must be aware of the campaign that is being waged against the leadership of the union, and they must be properly informed.
You would have covered the GPSU’s press conference of Thursday July 27, 2017 where the GPSU expressed its disappointment at being invited to discuss wages, salaries and allowances for 2017 when the commitment was given that the 2016 negotiations were not finished and that the negotiating teams should complete 2016. You would have had photographs of the GPSU’s team at the press conference and these were carried both in the printed and electronic media. Despite all of this there was a letter by E B John in the Stabroek News which misled the readers by providing misinformation as follows:
“His articulate exposition was made in the equally eloquent silence of the President of the union sitting alongside him … One wondered how many viewers (including the legally informed decision-makers) recognised the schizophrenic status of the main employment officer of the government, no less than the Chairman (ag), of the Guyana Public Service Commission, in plain view, unrepentant about explicitly identifying himself as the GPSU’s active vocalist”.
Editor, at the time of the press conference Mr Yarde was attending the World Credit Unions Conference in Vienna, Austria, six time zones away. Hence it was physically impossible for Mr Yarde to be sitting next to me at the press conference. It seems to me that Mr John has a personal grudge against Mr Yarde causing him to imagine his presence and to seize the opportunity to launch a salvo at the Chairman (ag) of the Public Service Commission. In fact we saw him doing this before when Mr Yarde was appointed Chairman (ag) of the Public Service Commission.
Mr John has a peeve with Mr Yarde being the Chairman (ag) of the Public Service Commission. He voiced it before in his letter, ‘We are caught in an injudicious system’ in the Stabroek News of May 25, 2017. It was pointed out by Ms Dawn Gardener in a letter of May 29, 2017, that the appointment of Mr Yarde to the PSC and later as Chairman (ag) was done in keeping with the Constitution of Guyana – the supreme authority. Mr John needs to realise that the Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana is sacrosanct and leaves no room for personal fetish as Mr John seems to want.
Editor, this unmerited, unethical and unprofessional behaviour seems to occur at any time that Mr John feels he has the opportunity to denigrate Mr Yarde. This behaviour must be exposed and condemned by an informed public.
Yours faithfully,
Mortimer Livan
1st Vice President
GPSU
