…for the old party enforcer
There are none so blind as those who would not see. At a time when the Government arrests practically the entire previous PPP Cabinet for making an exception of themselves and purchasing house lots in an exclusive development, they railroad through a bill in Parliament to make an exception of Hamilton Green in defining how to calculate a pension! And he ends up 100 times richer!! So why is the first “unjust enrichment” and not the other? Because the APNU/AFC has one more vote than the PPP?
But more accurately, it’s not about “A” pension, is it? It’s about Hamilton Green’s pension – so much that the Bill actually names him! The rule for past top Government officials’ pensions – they’re calculated at 7/8ths of their last salary. Simple, no? Well, the APNU/AFC Government decides that was TOO simple. When Hamilton Green and the PNC was voted out in 1992, the PM’s salary was peanuts at today’s standards. But he didn’t storm the Elections HQ while President Carter was in the building for the salary!
Back then, his salary wasn’t the thing – power was and with that he could reprise the role of the thug that catapulted him to Burnham’s notice back in the sixties. Whatever money could buy and he wanted, he just commandeered it! Even Burnham bypassed Hamilton Green for the PM’s office in favour of Desmond Hoyte back in 1990 because he’d grown too big for his britches and even took on the Kabaka!
Well we fast forward to the present, with Green’s pension now swollen to 7/8ths of that of today’s Prime Minister, the Honourable Moses Nagamootoo. But what does Nagamootoo’s salary and perks have to do with Green you ask, dear reader. Well, calculating from this base multiplies Green’s take home by the aforementioned 100 times!! While violating the rule on pensions – just to reward one man! Why??
The answer’s simple when you think of it. And it’s the same reason why he was first in line to get a national award from this Government. It’s literally payback time. When Green was the big enchilada in the PNC – especially being PM, he did quite a lot of favours to many of the present PNC who’re now in office. Folks forget Hoyte had cleansed the PNC of the Burnhamite hardliners after he took office…and this meant several of the faithful had been banished to Siberia. And Green was the only man in their corner – until Hoyte expelled HIM from the PNC.
Today they’re rewarding their benefactor even if it means subverting the rules that undergird our tenuous hold on stability.
While cane cutters from Wales can’t even get their severance!
…for PPP protesters
In a very chilling address to the GDF’s Annual Officers’ Conference, President Brigadier David Granger claimed, “Reckless remarks about an uprising and provocative calls for the mobilisation of foot soldiers have the potential to rip apart the fragile fabric of social cohesion that we enjoy.” Notwithstanding the protestations, he has to be referring to the concerns raised by the Leader of the Opposition that the precipitate closings of several sugar estates by the Govt will inevitably lead to protest actions by the thousands of workers who’ll be thrown into the streets.
The doctrine of “total national defence” – military, social, civil and environmental – adumbrated by Granger is eerily reminiscent of that unleashed by Forbes Burnham when he tried to militarise the society back in the 1970’s. The massive reserve forces that are being envisioned – then called the “Peoples’ Militia – was used with other para-military forces such as the Guyana National Service to intimidate the populace that was also buffeted by a collapsing economy.
This intimidation of legitimate democratic protests must be resisted.
…for parking meter protests
Unlike the sugar workers’ protests, those over the parking meters seem to be taken in stride by the City and Central Govt.
It is just a “town” vs “rural” thing?
