– tell nation how it feels about aiding closure of ERC
IN light of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA)’s recent feverish attempts at downplaying the impact of the opposition-led budgetary cuts, the government is now challenging the organisation to “tell Guyanese” how it feels about being a party to the likely closure of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC).
Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, speaking last Wednesday at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, dwelt at some length on the thorny issue of the budget cuts when he noted that the ERC was among several agencies affected by the move of the combined opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), to slash the national budget.
“Imagine its focus in their recent release, trying to downplay the impact of the budget cuts that were made by the Opposition APNU and AFC,” he lamented. The ERC’s allocation, like all the other State agencies being affected, has been cut from $99.419M to $1.
Wondering aloud whether the GHRA ever stopped to think of the negative effects the cuts might have on the nation’s well-being “in its haste to go to press to decry citizens’ concerns being highlighted by the Administration,” Dr Luncheon said: “Did they consider the impact on specifically the Ethnic Relations Commission, the constitutional body, a constitutional rights commission?”
Clearly incensed at the organisation’s temerity, he then challenged: “Let the GHRA tell Guyanese what they thought about the budget cuts that the opposition made, that would essentially close down the ERC!”
Noting that GHRA’s stance should come as no surprise, Dr Luncheon said: “…the GHRA was one of the many so-called bodies that did not raise their voices, and indeed remained silent, during the earlier legal attempt by the PNC/R (People’s National Congress/Reform) to close down the ERC.”
The PNC/R having failed before in the court of law, he asked of no one in particular: “How else, other than pure spite, can Guyanese describe this second attempt, this time in the legislature? He followed-up by saying: “A dollar to run the constitutional rights commission dedicated to ethnic affairs and ethnic relations for one year, and the GHRA again is yet to comment!”
Still on the subject, he queried: “Can the GHRA publicly comment now on the spectacle of elements of the ERC staff running to beg the opposition for their jobs? Their future? Their livelihoods? Their welfare?”
Not waiting for an answer, nor expecting one, he said: “Maybe in their own distorted, twisted logic, that is acceptable and warrants no concern of theirs.”
Noting that the GHRA’s most recent statement has attracted quite a bit of attention, and that the responses were not slow in coming, he next asked:
“Can the GHRA executive advise the Guyanese public whether they, as a Rights body, did examine the impact of the APNU/AFC budget cuts on a constitutional rights commission, the ERC?
“Can the GHRA advise Guyanese what, if any, was their deliberation on that matter, assuming, of course, its importance was shared by them, the members of the executive?”
In a previous statement last weekend, the Office of the President(OP) flayed the GHRA for what it said regarding the recent budget cuts by the parliamentary opposition parties, and warned that the organization “…should avoid acting as an apologist for the opposition.”
The OP statement also said: “It is inconceivable that Guyanese would believe, as the GHRA would want us to, that the recent budget cuts by the parliamentary opposition parties, APNU and AFC, are cosmetic and intended to have no effect.
“The Office of the President has noted GHRA’s contention that the design of the opposition was to approve cuts in the budget that were cosmetic and without the intended effect to put workers out of their jobs, and disrupt the developmental programmes of the PPP/C Government, flies in the face of the defence of the cuts put forward publicly by the opposition political parties.”
Additionally, the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), in a statement of its own,  said last weekend that it was appalled by the GHRA’s stance in relation to the public anger and outcry at the APNU/AFC budget cuts of more than $18 billion.
“Rather than empathising with the Guyanese public’s anger at the cuts, the GHRA, in a major cover-up on behalf of APNU/AFC, has sought to justify such actions, and has attacked those who have highlighted and commented on these most draconian actions of the opposition,” the PPP/C said.
“One would expect that the human rights organisation of any country, or an organisation that has a human rights orientation, would adopt a position publicly and privately that ensures that it canvasses for positions that are supportive (of) human rights and the welfare of people,” it stated, adding:
“The statement issued by the GHRA seems to have moved away from that role of being an advocate for human rights issues and has now further descended into the opposition partisan political realm.”