Dear Editor,
One does not have to be an attorney to know that a valid collective bargaining agreement (CBA) binds the parties. Up or down, a CBA is more than a contract; it is the law. It was President Ali himself who once said in a larger context that we are honourable people, we honour our commitments. Amnesia is a terrible development; it is more harrowing when it visits the younger. Double standards and hypocrisy have their people; here they are in charge. This explains why society is always in some state of controversy. If it is not Venezuela from the left flank, it is some wheeler-dealer inside Guyana.
The Exxon contract must be honoured, for that is what honourable people do. But we all know why: political continuity. There is one standard when dealing with feared foreigners, and there is another, radically lower honour bar, when dealing with black, brown, and copper coloured local ones. There is honour, then there is another kind of honour, i.e., honouring in the breach. If this qualifies as the highly rated standards of leading citizens like Ali, Jagdeo, and Nandlall, then when I find windmills in the capital city I could start to believe.
From the first two lovelies, their stance on the CBA in place with Guyana’s teachers is par for the course. When men conduct themselves consistently, a pattern emerges. They become predictable. Hence, the appeal of Justice Sandil Kissoon’s ruling is unsurprising. Some may label it nasty politics. I see men besmirching themselves. But then they never had cared about honour, i.e., until the White man (Exxon) contract put chains around their necks and saddles on their backs.
In the instance of Mohabir Anil Nandlall, QC, SC, and MP, what is the use of all these suffixes and honorifics from the alphabet squire, when they mock? Yes, I know he is a loyal soldier, one following orders. The German High Command offered that same spurious defense at the Nuremberg trials. I have some suggestions for him. First, he should smash all his mirrors. Then he should hang his head in shame, and last take a holiday to search for his soul. I suggest Ukraine. The majesty of the law now mixed with mud, thanks to his bosses in the PPP.
On the dollars and cents side, I detect the thinking of the men of honour in the PPP Government. Before proceeding, that was what made men (insiders) in the Mafia called themselves, men of honour. It is that if they agree to a 15-20% pay increase to Guyana’s teachers, the tens of thousands of public servants in Guyana would start agitating for their own cut, intensify pressures on the government. Now with that as a specter raising its ugly head, the private sector workers would start getting their own ideas and restlessness to express their discontent.
As all Guyanese have already concluded, the PPP is beholden to the private sector and is scared to death of causing its members any anxieties. Think lower profits. Meanwhile, Guyanese from all walks of life would want to know why they are living as if still in the days of colonialism and pre-independence serfdom and pre-oil economic stringency and dependency. Guyana’s teachers can’t catch a break, save from the judiciary, while Exxon catching one break after another from the Guyanese mandarins.
I understand that Exxon is pushing to have streets named after them in Texas. Something is cooking in that cozy relationship that must be honoured, no matter what Guyanese say, what they need, and what they know is their due from their inheritance. Apart from judge shopping, akin to the Republicans in the United States, this appeal is an attempt by the PPP smart men to run out the clock. Appeal and buy time, and in no time Common Entrance, CSEC, and CAPE will be over. Who cares about threats of striking teachers, to say nothing about sapping the will of the strikers?
And to top it all off, there is that long two-month summer holiday. In a real country, it would be one hell of a long, hot summer. Newly discovered honour bounds men to Exxon and its unspeakable contract. A different kind of honour bounds them to kick their own in the teeth. To the Court of Appeal, it will be. I believe this maxim: give men enough rope and they soon hang themselves.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
