THE Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has done two things which every Guyanese need to know about because this is the organisation that wants accountability, transparency, morally driven behaviour and competent administrators in the exercise of governance in Guyana.
But like an entire school of anti-government critics that includes the Kaieteur News and the Stabroek News and scores of civil society actors, these very values they do not embrace. The first thing is its five-year report that has been made public and secondly, the names on its new executive council.
Let’s look at some of the so-called human rights advocates in the leadership of the GHRA. Since it was born in 1979, it has been headed by Mr. Mike Mc Cormack. I ask any sane Guyanese if they appreciate and respect the functionalism of an organisation that for 45 years has been headed by the same person.

When Mr. McCormack became the top man at the GHRA 70 per cent of the Guyanese nation was not born or was in napkins. From 1979, not one human inside the GHRA has exhibited commonsense to ask for term limits.
Yet this was the same organisation that came out against writs filed in the court system in Guyana that asked for presidential term limits to be removed.
Mr. Mc Cormack is in his eighties and together with Mr. Lincoln Lewis of the Trade Union Congress who is also in his eighties and Patrick Yarde of the Guyana Public Service Union who is nearing his eighties, they embody the instinct of ownership of the organisations they respectively control and dominate.

Does it not appear surreal that one person only could be the lead figure in an organisation for 45 years? I am asking the Stabroek News what it thinks of the concept of forever leadership.
Next there is Norris Witter, a man who has headed his trade union, General Workers Union, for over 25 years. Mr. Witter was made a co-president of the GHRA. Please do not take my word for what I am about to write.
Please go to Youtube and type in Gildarie-Freddie Show and Norris Witter and look at the last 15 minutes of the programme.
Mr. Witter when asked for his opinion on the five months of attempted rigging of the 2020 general elections said he didn’t know anything about any election being rigged. Next is Dr. Troy Thomas. He is now on the executive of the GHRA. Dr. Thomas and I had a heated exchange over episodes in his hypocritical activism.

While being head of Transparency International – Guyana Chapter, the two unions at UG were calling for transparency in governance at UG under the tenure of Professor Ivelaw Griffith. For example, the salary of Dr. Griffith was not available to the Council of UG on request.
Here is the explanation of Mr. Thomas. It would not look good for him to be calling for transparency at UG while heading the Transparency Institute in Guyana. Up to this day, I never understood what he meant by that. He was and is a hypocrite. McCormack, Witter and Thomas cannot tell Guyanese what a human rights violation is.

We now move to the five-year report. This report covers 2019-2024. There is no analysis or description of the months of attempted election rigging in 2020 from March to July. Again I used the word, “surreal.”
Is it not surreal that an entity whose raison d’être is the safeguarding of human rights was silent on one of the worst periods of rights violation since the end of the 1960s. Does such an organisation deserve recognition in society?
One of the most sordid chapters in the incitement against a democratically elected government in modern Guyana was the GHRA’s subtle and sometimes not so subtle message that racial motives were behind the murder of two cousins in Cotton Tree in September 2020. The hate message of the opposition was the murder was a jubilant reaction of PPP supporters to the PPP’s election victory after Dr. Ali was sworn in as president.

The GHRA took an extremist position and demanded forensic experts be brought in to determine how the cousins died. This extremism of the GHRA contributed to mayhem in Region Five in which Indian people were once more helpless victims of insane violence. The GHRA did not condemn the violence.
The GHRA never apologised to the nation after it was determined that the deaths were drug-related. This was the lowest moment in the life of the GHRA for which this nation should not forgive it. The GHRA is a racially hostile, anti-PPP, Mulatto/Creole outfit that needs to be exposed by both government and the ruling party. It debases the sacred concept of human rights.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.