The behaviour of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) regime was sternly condemned by numerous groups representing Guyanese civil society. The diverse groups issued a strongly-worded joint statement on March 2. The statement said that the PPP is accountable to no one.
With reference to groups, the statement said, “With respect to civil society, long-standing ideological suspicion by the [PPP] of groups not under party political control has translated into ‘no one voted for them’ and therefore they have no right to accountability. The essence of accountability is provision of trustworthy information, i.e. facts that enable free, prior and informed consent. Currently citizens rely on sources pieced together by the media, anecdotes from an Energy Conference, remarks to visiting dignitaries, or the latest foreign investor unveiling his plans.” In other words, the PPP does not tell anyone anything.
Continuing its blistering censure of the PPP, the statement said, “Such an approach would be unacceptable even were such opaque decision-making limited to routine political matters. However, when dealing with future-of-society issues such as a gas pipeline, a controversial hydroelectric scheme, expanded oil exploration and deposit of 30 tons-and-counting of toxic wastes daily on the coastland, the current decision-making process is nothing less than frightening and intolerable.”
The statement noted that examples of the PPP refusing to be accountable are: the stripping of the Public Oversight & Accountability Committee (POAC) from the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Act; reducing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to a rubber-stamp, and the appointment of a PPP party person to Head the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI). The statement noted that the PPP party person is not known to be competent in business matters. Regarding this matter the groups wrote, “In small politically and ethnically divided States such as Guyana, governed by a very slim one seat “majority”, it is imperative to ensure that the Head of the GYEITI Secretariat is both competent in the specifics of the job as well as capable of objectively managing diverse stakeholder’s interests”.
This is not the first time that civil society groups have rebuked the PPP. It is noteworthy though, that this joint statement was released by such a diversity of groups with such differing interests. The groups include Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR); East Coast Development Committees (ECD7); Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA); Guyana Organization of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP); Guyana Society for the Blind (GSB); Guyana Workers Union (GWU); National Toshaos’ Council (NTC); Policy Forum Guyana Inc (PFG); Red Thread; Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI) and Ursuline Sisters in Guyana.
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