The Ministry of Home Affairs has expressed concern about the statement made by International Labour Organisation (ILO) spokesperson who it said appears to be supportive of breaches of the peace and good order by persons, who act contrary to the law.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said it rejects, unequivocally, the statement purportedly made by Sir Roy Trotman of the ILO, concerning the protestations over the past few days, involving Messrs Benschop, Witter and Lewis.

The Ministry noted that the claim by the ILO spokesperson that the rights of the three individuals were violated is without any foundation whatsoever.

Sir Roy Trotman is quoted in last Friday’s edition of Kaieteur News to have said that the; “Picketers were seeking to have the Government commit to its obligations and permit collective bargaining, social dialogue and freedom of association among others”

The Ministry of Home Affairs rejected the assertion and stated that at no time did Messrs Benschop, Lewis and Witter carry placards reflecting anything near what the ILO representative claimed they were seeking to advance.

According to the Ministry, during the picketing exercise, several slogans were used.

These include, “demanding full investigation into the Roger Khan dealings with the Jagdeo Administration”; “Jagdeo Administration must stop its racial discrimination against Guyanese” and “Rohee: Simels spoke with Ramsammy”.

The Ministry described as outrageous the utterances of the ILO representative, claiming that he never sought to find out from the government what its views are in respect to the issues nor the history of the three individuals, who it is well known have a long track record of engaging in anti-government and politically disruptive behaviour.

“Moreover, to issue a threat to the effect that: “The ILO would have to step in if the Government persists in this vein” is objectionable to the Government of Guyana and tantamount to gross eye-pass of the Guyanese Nation,” the Home Affairs Ministry said in a strongly worded statement.

Outlining the sequence of events that led to the arrest of the three demonstrators, the Ministry said that their picketing exercise commenced around Georgetown on Friday, June 26, 2009.

The demonstrators had declared that the exercises were to protest issues they referred to as “matters of national and international interest”.

Prior to last Wednesday’s picketing exercise at Eve Leary, several others were held. One was June 26 outside Office of the President in New Garden Street; another on July 2, outside the Chinese Embassy on Mandela Avenue during the Opening Ceremony of the 30th Regular Meeting of the Heads of Government of CARICOM; then on July 3, outside Police Headquarters, Eve Leary; July 10, outside the Ministry of Education, 21 Brickdam and on July 14, outside the Ministry of Home Affairs, Brickdam.

According to the Home Affairs Minister, on none of these occasions did the Security Forces prevent, obstruct or deny the three individuals from carrying out their picketing exercises in accordance with the law, save for the breach of the peace and good order which took place on Wednesday outside Police Headquarters, Eve Leary.

The Ministry said that this gives the lie to the false claim that the group of three were denied their constitutional right to protest.

It was only during the picketing exercise on July 15, 2009, because the picketers were not proceeding within the confines of the basic legal requirements that the police intervened to bring order to the exercise.

The Ministry said that the protestors refused to comply with police orders and it was only then that the police moved to arrest the picketers and place them in custody.

It was pointed out that only recently, Dr Compton Bourne, President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) had cause to correct a number of distortions and falsehoods peddled by Mr. Lincoln Lewis as regards the activities of the Caribbean Development Bank.

“It is obvious, therefore, that Sir Roy Trotman was set up by the threesome to adopt a biased stand based on an orchestrated series of events,” the Ministry of Home Affairs stated.

GPF unaware of any threat to Benschop
THE Guyana Police Force (GPF) wishes to respond to an article published in the Guyana Times of Friday July 17, 2009, under the caption “Benschop, Lewis, Witter released on bail.”

In statements reportedly made by Mark Benschop in the article, he is quoted as “also alleged being threatened by Police Commissioner Henry Greene, and has brought the matter to the attention of the International Labour Organisation.”

The Guyana Police Force wishes to state that it is not aware of any conversation between the Commissioner of Police and Mark Benschop nor any threat made publicly or privately to Mark Benschop. The Police Force has taken cognizance of the libellous statement being made to the media.

The Police Force reiterates that it is responsible for upholding law and order and persons bent on disorder will face the full force of the law.

IVELAW WHITTAKER
Public Relations and Press Officer

Typically , the government attacks everyone who dares to question or offer dissenting views. So it is not strange that the respond in the above manner. They will also find means to demonise any one who challenges them . They did this to the UN Independent specialist on race Relations. They did this to the US reports on drugs . But everyone who lives in Guyana knows that drugs permeate the society. The did it when pressure was coming to bear on Roger Khan US narco prisoner. These people try any means neccessary to still the voices of the people.

David,look, what the Guyanese authorities have been saying is that every country has a right to determine who it wants and doesn’t, if a Guyanese enters or reside in Barbados illegally then he has to be subjected to the Bajan laws governing such a scenario. What would be problematic is if all Guyanese who enter or seek to enter Barbados is given the same treatment.

Meanwhile it is the Burkes’ and Kean Gibsons who seek to protract their racists tendencies on the Bajan public by insinuating that Guyanese of Indian ancestry will seek to dominate Barbados in a way that they have done to Guyana. What the Gibsons and Burkes fail to, however, tell us is what did Burke’s Afro-Guyanese dominated PNC party do for Afro-Guyanese while in office?

I will give you an example! An area called Sophia, home of the PNC headquarters remained a squatter settlement for as long as the PNC was in power much to the detriment of its supporters. Burke’s former leader,and past President of Guyana, Desmond Hoyte, sent police with dogs to chase PNC supporters (Black Guyanese) off the land.
It was the PPP who came to power in 1992 and regularized the Sophia area and these former squatters became titled owners to the land which now boasts modern infrastructure etc.

PPP/C governance has contributed to racial insecurity

By Stabroek staff | July 16, 2009 in Letters

Dear Editor,
Dr Grantley Waldron’s programme ‘Spotlight,’ which was aired on HBTV 9 on Sunday July 5, 2009, hosted two of Guyana’s prominent politicians, PPP General Secretary, Donald Ramotar and former PNCR Chairman Winston Murray, who participated in the seventh of a series of discussions ‘Reconciliation in Guyana for what? How?
’
Both gentlemen argued their positions with conviction. While they expressed different views on most issues they had their moments of agreement on some. What was noteworthy was the respect they showed to each other throughout the discussion, which demonstrated that the country’s two main political adversaries can be civil to each other when they choose to. This attitude if it continues is good for the nation.
In this letter I propose to deal only with positions that Mr Ramotar took in the discussions for these reasons: (1) As the General Secretary of the ruling party and with the passing of both Dr Jagan and his wife, he is now the undisputed party leader; and (2) on the vexing issue of national reconciliation it is my opinion for what it is worth, the ruling party has a greater responsibility than the opposition to mend fences.Therefore, the positions of leaders of the government and ruling party on this matter have to be carefully examined.

I wish here to particularly examine the following positions taken by Ramotar: (1) the PPP is the party in Guyana that suffered the most from race; (2) there is need to build trust before we can have shared governance; (3) the PPP/C has made significant electoral gains since 1992 (4) there are better race relations in Guyana since the PPP/C returned to office, there is no serious race problem in the country – only instigators raising the issue of racial problems; and (5) the PPP/C has no Indian plan only a national plan.

It is important to acknowledge that Mr Ramotar, in his opening remarks, had conceded that the country has a history of racial problems which predated the PPP and PNC. Here he was referring to the problems that were endemic in our colonial history. He invoked Dr Jagan’s position on the issue, “Race must not be under estimated or over estimated.” But as the discussion proceeded he moved to the usual PPP/C position of denial.
I strongly, disagree with Mr Ramotar’s contention that the PPP is the party in Guyana that suffered the most from the issue of race in our politics. Any objective review will show that it is the WPA and not the PPP which suffered the most in this regard. History will show that from the early days of Dr Jagan’s entry into Guyanese politics he and his party were the beneficiaries of racial and working class solidarity. The Indian masses saw him as their leader, championing their cause. This remains true to this day. National unity in the ’50s under Dr Jagan’s leadership was in the main, a unity of the major race groups against white colonialism. Here again the race factor helped to bring the PPP to prominence and power. And today it is race solidarity that keeps them in office. To deny this is either playing political games or outright dishonesty.

The PPP/C ‘s position that there is need to build trust between the two major parties before any serious consideration of shared governance, is that party’s way of insisting on the right to one party/one race rule. Shared governance is not a matter between the two parties but the race constituencies in the country. Is Mr Ramotar saying that Africans and Amerindians have to demonstrate to the rulers that they can be trusted before the issue of shared governance is to be seriously addressed with the urgency it deserves? If that is his position it has to be equated to that of a conqueror who will do all at his disposal to hold on to his conquests at all costs. This position of the ruling party was first made public many years ago at a meeting at the University of Guyana. If anyone now takes the PPP/C talk of trust that person has to be naïve, since that party to date has not set out any comprehensive conditions to determine if, how and when the required trust has been achieved, nor has the party fixed a time period for the process.

Over time, whenever PPP/C leaders were asked to deal with the racial divide in the country they did as Ramotar has done, boast about electoral gains the PPP/C has made since the 1992 general elections. Putting aside the ongoing controversy over the reliability of the voters’ list, I am willing to concede that the PPP/C has increased its votes in some Amerindian communities and in a small percentage of African areas. And these cross-over African votes are the result of a systematic policy of the PPP/C to starve Africans economically forcing them to join the ruling party to get economic and social benefits. To cite a good example, at the last PPP/C congress held at Diamond one of the new African recruits from Region 10 took to the floor and made an important outburst. She said if the PNCR was able to look after us we would not have been here – how true.

Are the few cross-over votes enough to justify the PPP/C’s claim that the country has gone past racial voting? My answer is no. The bulk of the voters in our elections cast their ballot along race, the majority of Indians vote PPP/C and the same is true for African Guyanese who vote for the PNCR. This has been the reality since the split of the national movement in the early ’50s.

I now come to the General Secretary’s claim that since the PPP/C’s returned to office there are better race relations and there is no racism in the country, only instigators whipping up the issue of race. Before dealing with that point it is necessary to clarify the race issue in our politics. When the PNC was in government the political opposition influenced by WPA’s theoretical work on race in Guyana, had agreed that our race problem is one of “racial insecurity” and not unfettered racism as was practised in apartheid South Africa. Apart from the ’60s there has been no open communal violence in Guyana. The post-election disturbances which took place in 1992 and after, had political and racial undercurrents, but did not reach the crisis of the ’60s. Is it the absence of open race war which prompts the PPP/C to say that there are better race relations post 1992 in the country? If this is their logic they inherited this form of better race relations from PNCR rule.

The question which should be asked is – has the PPP/C regime reduced racial insecurity in the country? It is only the PPP/C leadership that cannot recognize the obvious. Their continuous denial of the reality is not due to the burying of their collective heads in the sand but it is due primarily to their political dishonesty. Racial insecurity in the country is at its worst in recent history. It has long been established that when the PNC is in office the Indian insecurity becomes high since they feel excluded from power. The same is true of Africans when the PPP is in government. It was true in 1957, in1961and in 1963 and it is true today in 2009 and has been so since the re-emergence of the PPP in government in 1992. One would have expected that all Guyana would by now have come around to accepting this fact of life. But it seems that the PPP/C now that it is in power seeks to deny this. It has long been established that during the cold war political scenario, Africans’ racial insecurity and electoral rigging combined to deny Indian political aspirations.

Similarly, the end of the cold war, Indian superior numbers, racial voting, the Westminster winner-take-all political system, Indian racial insecurity and drug money also combined to deny Africans’ political aspirations. Readers will note that I have not included here the impact of the extra-judicial killings of young African men, the alleged government links with the drug cartels, the criminalization of the state, rampant corruption, or the rape of state funds on deteriorating race relations.
Before addressing Mr Ramotar’s claim that the PPP/C has no Indian plan for the country, only a national plan, I just want to remind the PPP/C leadership that the PNC under Mr Burnham was entitled to make the same claim. In fact everything the then ruling party did, good or bad, they did under the banner of nationalism, not race – something the PPP rejected. Throughout the PNC’s rule the single most important slogan of the PPP and Dr Jagan was, “racial and political discrimination.” What has changed under the PPP? The truth is that racial and political discrimination in Guyana is at its worst level today, since independence. The only difference is that under the PPP/C it is dressed up with electoral legality.
Neither, of the two parties – the PPP and PNC – have ever publicly, put out a race plan as the basis of their political work. It should be noted that when they hold the reins of governmental power they have always denied the existence of race problems in the country. So it should come as no surprise to anyone when Ramotar said that his party has no Indian, only a national plan. Having a national plan, however, does not mean that race considerations are not a major part of the party politics and governmental policies. Yes, we will not be able to go to the national archive and find a PPP/C document entitled, ‘PPP/C Race Plan or Manifesto,’ therefore the test for that party’s racial even-handedness is its practice both in opposition and in government.

A cursory glance will show the extent to which the PPP/C’s national plan is taking hold. When the PPP was in opposition Dr Jagan had always campaigned against the African dominance in the public sector and the security forces. When he became President after the 1992 general elections, one of his early public pronouncements was that his government was committed to correct the racial imbalance in the public sector. He did not give a similar commitment to deal with the racial imbalance in the economic sector where his supporters were and still are the dominant force. The same eagerness was not shown to deal with African and Amerindian marginalization in the economic sector. A new, elite set of Indian contractors were awarded large public works contracts, after 1992. In spite of the fact that some were known to deliver substandard works they continued to garner the bulk of the contracts for governmental works while African contractors got the crumbs. New businessmen with close relationships to the PPP have developed, some of whom are involved in the drug trade.

The party has been doing its utmost to put more Indians in the public sector and the security forces and to ensure that they dominate where possible, all of the senior positions. Almost every aspect of seniority in public life is characterized by an Indian face. In some instances wherever a black person holds office he or she does so in an acting capacity. There is a spin-off to this dominance by Indians in public life. All of the blame for failure and crisis in these areas has, very correctly, been laid at their doors.

The private sector is now more dominated by Indians than at any time in the country’s history. In this sector Africans retain some dominance but with smaller numbers. Access to foreign agencies’ loans is another area where Indians have benefited the most, since government approval of projects was necessary and favours their applications.
Mr Ramotar and his party will be best advised to adopt a proposal made in one of WPA’s election manifestos, for an agency to be responsible for keeping a check on the condition of ethnic groups, and publicly make their findings known, so the government and the nation can come up with solutions. If that recommendation was put in place we would not be having this debate today.
No one is fooled by Mr Ramotar’s statements, since the PPP/C’s record on governance has contributed to the intensification of racial insecurity to a point only surpassed in the early ’60s. Ms Gay McDougal, the independent expert on Minority Rights was not fooled by the regime on the situation in the country.

What gives Mr Ramotar the right to believe he can fool Africans and Amerindians and others? These days Indians make no secret of their domination of the country – that is the result of the PPP’s unwritten plan.

Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye

Lincoln Lewis has the moral authority! He stood up to the PNC, He can stand up to the PPP! Try as they could them can’t stop Mark. Witter said the struggle will continue . It must. enough is enough

Get thee hence PPP . Ha ! Ha1 Your stripes are exposed. Look after your own people before you try to export the race divisions to Barbados. PPP corruption, and abuse must stop! Jagdeo is a dictator and a bully indeed.

I will participate now and in the future, once elected dictatorship continues, in the politics of protest for the creation of the Velvet Revolution in Guyana.
The level of political degeneracy that this nation is currently witnessing is so appallingly worse than any period of PNC domination that the effort of Lincoln Lewis and others must be emulated. read t he entire article at http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/07/19/lincoln-lewis-asked-

” read t he entire article at
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/07/19/lincoln-lewis-asked-me-to-picket-with-him-i-obliged/

The arrest of Lewis, Benschop and Witter over a peaceful picket outside the police office at Eve Leary is just another manifestation of how rotten the exercise of power has become under the PPP. One hopes that as Lewis and others extend their nationalism and love of Guyana all over this large country, Guyanese will cast off their fear, resignation and apathy and join the train of justice as it moves towards its final destination of the Velvet Revolution.
The people of Guyana deserve a better government and what it has. It deserves a government that respects the laws, Constitution and people of Guyana.
Read t he entire article at http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/07/19/lincoln-lewis-asked-

” read t he entire article at
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/07/19/lincoln-lewis-asked-me-to-picket-with-him-i-obliged/

Ramsammy need to do a lie detector test. he could not even look the camera in the eye when stood up and lie to the nation.

Jagdeo and the entire cabal need placing in a tar barrel and throw overboard.

Imagine what will happen to Barbados

All the PPP can do is bring shame on Guyana and lie! lie!lie! They have no shame.

Time for standing up to the Jagdeo govenment is now. 17 years is too much. When they finish Guyana has nothing to offer.
They hope to malign Lewis and others with the arson at the Ministry and at the same time destroy the evidence of Ramsammy coruption. Nothing strange with them

So what, You guys think that we should place Jagdeo , Ramsammy and the pack of rogues in Brickdam Lock -ups?
I cannot imagine what they would do if Thompy decide to throw Indans in Bajan Jail. But then again they would prefer to even stay in Jail than go home to their beautiful country and the PPP

HA ! ha!

Jagdeo supporters rather get put in Bajan jail than go back to Guyana! ha! ha! he! he! Maybe they will squat there. Ha! Ha! Keep it up PPP

I have it on good accord that Jagdeo does not have clue what to do

The same Indian racist agenda is expanding in the Caribbean. Now Trinidad Indians also claiming ethnic cleansing. This has to be a plan to destablise black rule. Every body knows what the term ethnic cleansing connotes. We have to see when the Suriname Indians will start up.

I wonder what will happen when war breaks out in Guyana. Will barbados send their soldiers down there to fight? Who will they fight for? U.S.A will send their soldiers in to rescue U.S citizens but I don’t see them getting involved in the internal matters. Then there are the heavily armed indians against the blacks. Will our black soldiers expected to shoot down the blacks, since the PPP is going to declare them the agressors. There is lots of fire power in Guyana and it will be advicible of my P.M and the RSS to stay out of that fight. If the Caricom leaders are doing nothing now to stop it, why should soldiers lose their lives over it. For whatever reason the regional leaders seem to be afraid of Jagdeo. If the Barbados soldiers leave to fight in Guyana and “Little Guyana” the bajan guyanese start up, would we, the citizens, then left to protect themselves? The same thing goes for T&T, and Antigua.

President Jagdeo recently hurled a slur at our authorities by publicly calling them liars over the numbers of deportees/people being asked to leave.

Now we have them telling Sir Roy to butt out!

One big happy family being fostered by the Cairman of Caricom.

Jagdeo’s resignation does not begin to do anything to bring the Africs and Indics together in Guyana, and nothing short of this unity will help Guyana. I have not seen much to suggest to me that Afric guyanese as leaders would do much to bring about this unity. We should not open our borders to citizens from such a racially devided country.

This is a dream. Not my dream, and I have no say or stake in it other than to be a plebe, which I am already. There is no utility that I can see nor have I been told whats in it for ME. Therefore trading places i.e. one day to be a citizen of the sovereign state of Barbados and the next to “trade up” to be a citizen of the newly minted Caricom state, is tantamount to playing musical chairs, where the winners will need me to play fuh loser in order to win. We all must win and clearly this cannot be achieve with the current economic inbalance amongst Caricom states, and the racial devide in Trinidad and Guyana.

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I aint care wuh nuh body say bout my spelling and grammar, dis plebe will continue to think for himself, even as the knighted, finally stumble upon the truth and gets publish for the same.

Adrian Hinds on July 9th, 2009 at 5:21 pm

If I do not get to popularly elect those who seek to govern over me, they will have no democractic rights to my taxes, or my submission as a citizen. Such will always be reserved for a government of the people and by the people of Barbados.

Lloyd Erskine Sandiford on July 19 2009

The first thing I know of is taxation and the slogan, no taxation without representation. I don’t want anybody else to be telling us what our levels of taxes should be in Barbados or saying what should be taxes and what should not be taxed, so we should forget this thing about Single Economy, we can build our relations without talk about Single Economy.

http://www.normangirvan.info/a-caricom-executive-mechanism-pj-patterson/#comment-4895

David that is the brassiness of these people. Sir Shridaths comments were welcomed but Sir Roy would be accused of being partisan. That is how the government always respond to criticism or any statement / report contrary to their’s. Everybody has an agenda except them. They have the stabroek news as a supportive media to help them. Stabroek News (SN) which is related to your Barbados Nation ( ownership wise) seems to carry the same agenda. The sensational headlines depicted Guyanese immigrants in Barbados as being violated. They did little to present the situation in an unbiased way and thus the illegality of the whole illegal migrant situation got out of hand and the amnesty was ignored.

It takes time, but I will persist nonetheless. Barbadians need to change their view of the Nation newspaper. It is no longer a Local newspaper. Its ownership and now it’s persistent continued editorial and other content demonstrate this very clearly. It just happens to be located in Barbados, but it is not Barbadian, and bajans need to come to this realization, accept it, and treat to it accordingly.

If the BLP has to look at a foreign publishing from Guyana to find revelance on the Immigration issue the BLP has a lot to learn from Barbados citizens.

As usual, Ricky and his mongoose gang, are pretending that they are not getting the message, thus blaming everyone else. If it was really arson and if it was an anti-government plot then the message is clear. What could also be true is that the very government might have been responsible for the fire, in an effort to hide or destroy criminal evidence in the Min of Health. Which ever way, it shows that country is about to expode and Barbados, T&T, Antigua and St. Lucia are going to recieve the ripple effect.

What Rickey did not say:
That in Guyana there is a trend of burning buildings whenever there is an investigation of corruption. The Ministry of Health has been added to the following list: Ministries of Works; Housing and Labour, Finance, MMA, GECOM,. Prior to this the PPP and record has it, used as their strategy the burning of young sugar canes to disrupt sugar production and destablise the Guyanese economy. Sugar cane has not been burnt since PPP took Office since 1992