Work Force Racial Bias

People who are hired during one administration should not be fired when that administration changes. The United Republican Party (URP) is concerned that several persons – both Afro and Indo-Guyanese – but mostly Indo-Guyanese, are being ousted from their jobs. One might argue that it can be racially biased for any political party to hire a disproportionate amount of party members and ethnically similar persons. However, to arbitrarily fire those said people, especially if it causes the displacement of those who did not support you or are racially diverse from you, is worse.

What we are seeing in Guyana is a swinging of the pendulum, from one direction to the next, in order to right the PPP’s wrongs. During the PPP 23 years in governance, there is amble proof that the Indian majority government showed preference to their Indian supporters. The most blatant of that fact was when it was pointed out by Dr. Luncheon that there was not a single Afro-Guyanese who served as Ambassadors for Guyana.

Additionally, most of the public services and state board’s jobs were stacked with Indians and PPP supporters. Also, many of the huge, multi-million contracts were also awarded to Indian owned businesses. These were all wrong behaviors on the part of the PPP and about which the URP spoke out against. However, many of these persons were not responsible for being hired. They have planned their lives around their jobs – some borrowed loans or have their children in private schools – and therefore it is unfair to arbitrarily fire these innocent people. They are mere collateral damage and are now suffering due to no fault of their own.

Are we to expect that if the PPP wins back the government that we will see the huge firing of those who were hired by the Coalition? These obvious political vindictiveness and blatant cronyism cannot be exercised to the benefit of Guyana. There has to come a point in time where the politics in Guyana is left at the level of the politicians and those close to them. The URP is not naive to the point of not understanding that elections have consequences. However, the small man should not be caught up in the shuffle that happens every time there is a political shake up.

So we ask the Granger-lead administration, in the interest of humanity and Social Cohesion, to immediately cease the practice of removing from office those who were hired by the previous administration. The country cannot move forward if we keep mired in these petty, political practices from successive parties. We all know that this needs to stop.