THE   Guyana Government has indicated that the Private Sector Commission (PSC), as a civil society (CS) body, will be asked to be involved in identifying civil society’s representatives on the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) of the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYETTI).

It is anticipated that a CS conspiratorial group plans to reject the PSC as part of CS in Guyana. If the PSC is not a CS group, I would like to see a definition of what constitutes a CS entity. There cannot be a proper definition of CS if entities like the Catholic Church, the Trade Union Congress are included under the rubric of CS but not the PSC.

The previous CS persons on the MSG were Mike Mc Cormack from a body named Policy Forum and Ms. Vanda Radzik. It is time this country put an end to the CS masquerade which has gone for too long.

How did Ms. Radzik get onto MSG? Which CS body nominated her? I saw a documentary on Guyana’s oil industry by the BBC’s Hard Talk programme and Ms. Radzik appeared as one of the interviewees and she is simply described as a CS activist. I was at a Palestine rally on the seawall last year and Ms. Radzik was a speaker and she was introduced as a CS activist.

The question surrounding Ms. Radzik is which CS entity she belongs to and does that organisation have actual existence? What work it does? Who are on its executive? Does it have term limits and does it have periodic elections for office bearers?

If a CS organisation does not meet the criteria listed above then it cannot be considered as having existence. It has to be a despicable farce that a non-existent group that lacks transparency wants to be on an entity in which one of its essential functions is transparency. Just to remind readers, the institution is named Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Mr. Mike Mc Cormack found himself on the MSG. He was recommended by Policy Forum (PF). But how active is PF and does PF have independence which is a fundamental criterion for being on the MSG. Who or what is PF? It consists of the Catholic Church, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and McCormack’ Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA)

PF by the very nature of its constituents is an anti-government body. The MSG should not be made up of either pro-government or anti-government organisations. The TUC and GHRA are not only anti-government but are insanely so. Who in this country is willing to deny that the TUC and GHRA are not anti-government?

Let’s look at the existence of transparency in the TUC and GHRA. Mr. Lincoln Lewis is in his early eighties and has been General Secretary of the TUC for 35 years. He is the TUC and the TUC is him. Mr. Mc Cormack is in his eighties and has been the president of GHRA since its birth in 1979; that is 46 years. Ms. Radzik is in her mid-seventies. The last time I saw her at the seawall Palestine rally, she appears to have health issues. One hopes that they are not applying to sit on the MSG this year.

The masquerade of non-existent CS groups claiming to represent Guyanese must stop. It is a vulgar aberration. What is deplorable is that these people, the past five years, have constantly condemned the Guyana Government for lack of transparency and accountability and they have none.

Take the GHRA. What role does the GHRA play in Guyana? I have met dozens of people periodically that have problems with the NIS and none of them knows about the GHRA and what work it does.

None of them has given any thought to the GHRA intervening with the NIS to help them. Leonard Craig, the Chronicle columnist is currently working with a number of pensioners to assist them with their NIS complaints. No one complains to the GHRA. The only time, Guyanese hear about the GHRA is when the Stabroek News carry its press releases on its front page.

Every Guyanese with democratic instincts need to monitor in the coming weeks the process of selecting CS representatives on the MSG. This masquerade of jumbie CS groups acting as if they have life should be condemned. My recommendation is that two strong and resourceful CS entities should be on the MSG.

One is the Private Sector Commission which played a priceless role in securing free and fair election in 1992 and 2020. The other is the union federation that goes under the acronym, FITUG. These are real, living organisations with enormous reach in society.

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.