FOREIGN Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge has reminded the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) that in 1992, when it came into power, it had fired more people than what it is now accusing the present Government of firing.Responding to Member of Parliament (MP) Priya Manickchand during the Budget Debates in the National Assembly on Thursday, Greenidge chastised that party for trying to bury the sordid history of that period, and said Manickchand would have then still been in primary school.

Greenidge, a longstanding member of the People’s National Congress (PNC), which had been unseated by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in the 1992 elections, said: “What I’ve listened to is cynicism, and (that) reflective of selective amnesia. As regards discrimination, random firing, and the like, Foreign Affairs is the institution that bore the brunt of that despicable erring.”

He hinted at the transition period during 1992, when the PPP won the elections. During that transition period, numerous employees from the Foreign Affairs Ministry had reportedly been dismissed without a plausible explanation.

Greenidge dubbed Manickchand’s proposition reflective of selective amnesia, and said that she — and by extension the Opposition — was attempting to convince Guyanese that only the coalition Government had inherited a good system, while the PPP did not. This, he indirectly hinted, was not a reflection of the truth.

MANICKCHAND’S CONTENTION
Manikchand had earlier called on the Government to cease the alleged dismissal of lower-level employees at State institutions. Though she had, on numerous occasions, deviated from an orchestrated attack on Budget 2016, Manickchand had sought to remind the Government that it should govern in the interest of all the people, since it has been so obligated.

In making her case, she had referred to a scenario wherein, subsequent to the Government’s assumption of office, an employee at a State institution had allegedly been dismissed last year, after serving for over 20 years. She opined that the reason why “Fareeda” (only name given) had been dismissed was because of her perceived political affiliation, which could not be substantiated.

This assumption fuelled an eruption of heckling in the House, since the party Manickchand was representing had, on numerous occasions, been accused of practising the very thing she was now accusing the Government of practising.

MPs also questioned the information provided by Manikchand, who is also an attorney-at-law. “Who is Fareeda? You making up names!” one MP heckled from across the room.

Resolute in her presentation, however, Manickchand had disclosed that Fareeda’s daughter, then a law student, had been forced to discontinue her studies due to financial constraints.

“She [the daughter] is now an untrained young teacher, trying to hold on to something until she can start school again. Is Fareeda’s daughter not entitled to the same life?” Manickchand had questioned.

Having attracted another round of heckling, the former Education Minister had further revealed that “Hannif” (only name given) from the Ministry of Education had allegedly suffered the same fate as Fareeda.

“I’m not speaking of CEOs who have been knocked off; I’m speaking about secretaries and drivers,” she had said.

Similar anecdotal claims had been made earlier in the week by PPP MP Indranie Chandarpal, who had claimed to have been in contact with taxi drivers and other citizens who had been saying that “things bad”.

Manickchand had also sought to press the Government to immediately offer salary increases to teachers, as had been promised during its 2015 elections campaign; and to table the Education Bill in the House, in an attempt to construct a more robust education sector.

The education sector has received a whopping $40.3B in the 2016 budget, making it recipient of the largest allocation for any sector in the budget.

A senior retired diplomat has told the Guyana Chronicle that back in 1992, when Clement Rohee was then Minister of Foreign Affairs, some 69 persons had been fired from the Foreign Service Ministry alone, and those persons included support staff and ambassadors. The diplomat told Guyana Chronicle of situations wherein the current General Secretary of the PPP had visited foreign missions and had, among other alleged abuses, dismissed diplomats on the spot.