THE Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) on Saturday called on the APNU+AFC coalition government to refrain from tabling the Prime Minister Hamilton Green Bill No. 23 of2016.
The Bill seeks to provide pension benefits to Green, who served as the country’s Prime Minister from 1985 to 1992 under the People’s National Congress (PNC) government.
In a statement to the media, the GHRA said the Bill should be withdrawn on the ground that it is an insult to taxpayers of this generation who are “prominently wage- earners” to shoulder the burden of excessive pension for people who have “so curtailed this generation’s life chances.”

Additionally, the human rights body believes that the government has no justification for the Bill beyond cronyism, while noting that Hamilton Green who also served as Mayor of the City of Georgetown for in excess of 10 years has“never apologised for the humiliation, hardship and violence to which the Guyanese people were subjected during his harrowing term of office.”
Moreover, the GHRA believes that the notion of former presidents and senior politicians being treated as “Princes of the City” with “excessive pensions and benefits reinforces rather than undermines the repugnant notion that the purpose of politics is to enrich politicians.
The body argued too that the personalised Bill to allow Green to be rewarded for a “lifetime of politics marked by incompetence and divisiveness is provocative,” given that the administration is attempting to curb corruption.

“The Guyanese Parliament is still to distinguish itself for the quality of its contribution to public life. If the Bill under discussion is entertained, its reputation would be further eroded by the ridicule it would justly attract. The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) is calling for the non-submission of this obnoxious Bill,” the statement added.
On Friday, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo told reporters that Green’s name should not be on the Pension Bill, but instead it should be given a generic name to cater to all former prime ministers. The Prime Minister said there should be a review of the draft legislation.
“It may be an issue we would want to re-look at, as to why [the Bill has been named] ‘Hamilton Green Pension’ and not Former Prime Ministers’ Pension Bill,” while stating that a broader rubric would allow for a futuristic legislation rather than to attempt to correct an anomaly.

The Prime Minister argued too that the issues have to be seen in context, noting that there is only one former Prime Minister that is available for any benefit. He said looking at the matter historically, a person who held the office of Prime Minister should not be given a parliamentarian’s salary.
He stressed the need for equity, noting that it is only fair for Green to receive a Prime Minister’s pension. The Prime Minister also called on citizens to put aside their bitterness and think about the situation rationally. “This nation has to be able to put aside its own bitterness, [which] has contaminated all of us and become part of our political culture of hate and being judgmental and being angry when we deal with people who have held offices in this country,” Nagamootoo told reporters.
But his reasoning was not accepted by the GHRA; that body argued that the Bill provides for Green to be paid a pension based on the salary paid to the Prime Minister “as though he actually earned the said salary, taking into consideration his record of service as a legislator.

“It also provides for Green to receive all benefits provided for by the Former President (Benefits and Other Facilities) Act 2015. The value of these benefits are an annual pension of G$20,580,000, other benefits to the value of G$3.1mn annually, two vehicles provided and maintained by the State and two first-class annual airfares [plus] free transportation provided by the State,” said the human rights body.
Additionally, the statement noted that Green also qualifies for an ex-parliamentarian’s pension along with whatever benefits he would have accrued from his period as Mayor.
“The Prime Minister Hamilton Green Pension Act 2016 on the Order Paper is utterly shocking. His entire political career reflects the attributes that have kept Guyana ethnically polarised and, for this reason, securely anchored at the bottom of all Caribbean indicators of social and economic progress in the modern era. As a young and ruthless politician in the early 1960s, his name figured prominently in the violence from which this society has still to recover,” the statement added.

The GHRA has also accused Green of being partly responsible for what has been described as the “mass exodus of Guyanese” during the 1970s and 1980s.
“Those years saw bizarre hardships imposed on the Guyanese people, including being criminalised for possession of onions and garlic, blocks-long queues around gas stations due to gasoline shortages and outbreaks of beri-beri.”
Citing Green’s leadership of the City Council over the years and his appointment as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), the body believes that he is undeserving of the pension.
“…it is ironic that Guyanese of the same age group as Hamilton Green are now condemned to live on old-age pensions of G$17,000, while he complains of having to eke out a living on his pension of G$100,000 plus his benefits from being Mayor,” the statement added.