Dear Editor:
THERE is mutiny in the PPP-controlled Guyana Private Sector Commission (PSC). Members are objecting to its leaders’ open hostility to the APNU+AFC coalition government and brazen endorsement of the opposition PPP.

The PSC’s recklessness should have been checked long before its credibility and reputation collapsed into this destructive, partisan, political sinkhole. The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) and I, as well as Dr. Mark Devonish and others, expressed serious concerns about the PSC’s emergence as a mouthpiece for the PPP. Its attacks on the government indicate that the PSC’s leadership has invested in the PPP’s attempt to depose the democratically elected government.

The PSC is a not-for-profit organisation. It was formed to advocate for business interests and development and help promote a conducive environment for private investment and business development. It is not a political party. It has no expertise nor competence in the law or governance. Nevertheless, because of the obvious political allegiance of most in its leaders to the PPP, the PSC has allowed itself to be used by the PPP to attack the government.

It has incessantly claimed the government is violating the constitution and has been recklessly parroting PPP propaganda. Of all the organisations in Guyana, what gives the PSC the right to be a so-called champion of the constitution? Who told the PSC that its interpretation of the constitution is right and veracious? Why should the government follow the PSC’s interpretation of the law? What is the PSC’s locus standi in the no- confidence vote? What role did the PSC play in the PPP’s attempt to pervert the provisions of the constitution to depose the democratically elected government? The PSC must answer!
The PSC’s decision to partner with the PPP in a show of force against the government has troubled some members. Several members contacted me to express disgust with the PSC leadership’s attacks on the government and the contentious environment such attacks have engendered. They bemoaned the absence of consultations to obtain the views of the wider membership before these partisan pronouncements are made. They affirmed that the views expressed by the leadership do not reflect theirs.

They are outraged that Mr. Kit Nascimento jumped into the political fracas to engage in personal, political attacks on behalf of the PSC. They are indignant that, one day after Nascimento made a splash all across the national media as a PSC representative, he found himself at the head table of a PPP campaign event seated next to PPP presidential candidate Irfaan Ali. Moreover, they believed Mr. Nascimento’s personal attack on President David Granger was disgraceful and unacceptable.

It is therefore not surprising when a journalist sent me a letter from the secretary of the PSC for my comment. The letter warned the organisation’s leaders that the PSC’s unfortunate, political attacks on the government have opened the organisation to severe criticism. The letter is apposite. It vindicates my contention that the PSC has crossed the line to emerge as a political adversary of the government and partner of the political opposition. The letter also directed Mr. Nascimento to desist from acting on behalf of the PSC without permission. This is an appropriate repudiation of Mr. Nascimento. His odious, political attacks have further damaged the PSC’s reputation and destroyed public trust in the organisation. Guyanese must no longer trust this organization; it has nefarious motives.

No government in the world will tolerate this level of political undermining and sinister conspiracy by a not-for-profit, private sector entity. The PSC is moonlighting as the PPP’s political enforcer and renegade in chief. The posture has done irrevocable harm to the organisation. The nation must no longer trust this entity as a business outfit. It is not. It must be seen for what its leadership has created: a PPP front organisation and an opposition political force.

Coalition supporters must therefore take up the mandate to defeat the PPP and its PSC partner. Business owners who oppose the PSC’s endorsement of the PPP should pull out of the PSC and form a parallel private sector organisation. Break it up!
Regards
Rickford Burke