THERE is a group of people in this country that has an instinct of entitlement, and that entitlement is on display at the moment. If the leadership of the Government buckles to this pugnacious demand by this cabal masquerading under the title of civil society, then it may never recover from that episode of weakness. What is at stake here is the credibility of the political leadership of the government. The onus is on the government to tell this group that it will fight and expose its insane demand of entitlement.
Let’s discuss the entitlement mentality. Certain civil society entities believe they are entitled to shape this country to their liking because of their birthright as the inheritors of the colonial state. These people are from the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC), and they have confronted every president beginning with Forbes Burnham with the intention of wresting power. Through status and connections, the MCC believes that it must have participatory power in the state.
It would be impossible to analyse the political heritage and the political journey of the MCC in a newspaper column, but more than 20 columns of mine in this newspaper since 2023 have traced the evolution and present shape of the MCC, so let’s move on to the present confrontation with the Government of Guyana.
I refer readers to my article of Friday, October 3, 2025, titled “Guyana must end this masquerade.” This column could be interpreted as part 2 of the October 3 piece. Here is the story. Guyana is part of the global arrangement titled Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). The body overseeing the function of EITI is named the Multi-stakeholder Group (MSG).
The government in each country where there is an EITI selects a convenor to arrange for the country’s civil society organisations to be part of the MSG. The APNU+AFC government chose the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) to be the convener. The GHRA chose Mike McCormack and Vanda Radzik. This had to be a conflict of interest because McCormack heads the GHRA to be in the MSG. Their term has ended. The government has chosen Dr. Ivor English to be the convenor.
The usual suspect (TUS) in the MCC has rejected Dr. English as convenor. Guess why? TUS and MCC (they overlap) want their colleagues in their incestuously intertwined organisations to choose the convenor. Here is the list of civil society groups from which the convenor comes, and as you see them, remember the word “incestuous” and note their anti-government bias.
Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA)
Policy Forum Guyana (PFG) – note – Mike Mc Cormack is in the leadership of both.
Guyana Workers Union – note – its head, Norris Witter is co-chairman with Mike Mc Cormack of the GHRA.
East Coast Development Committee. This is headed by McCormack’s wife, Merle Mendonca
Amerindian People’s Association (APA) — anti-government
Guyana Organization of Indigenous People (GOIP)—anti-government. It should be noted that APA and GOIP are synonymous.
Red Thread—anti-government
Greenheart Movement. Note- Sherlina Najeer of this group is also part of Red Thread
SASOD. Note- Najeer is also part of SASOD
Transparency Institute Guyana (TIG)
Access to Information. This is headed by Alfred Bhulai, who is also in TIG leadership
What we have here is TUS with its entitlement mentality wanting to dictate to the government who should be civil society’s representative on the MSG. But the charter of the EITI stipulates what constitutes a civil society organisation. The list includes the media, religious bodies, trade unions. So TUS has written to the Norway-based head office of EITI for them to put pressure on the government to cancel Dr. English’s appointment, but TUS has not canvassed the views of the following civil society groups:
NCN
The Chronicle
FITUG
Newsroom
The Medical Association
The Women’s Lawyer Association
The Bar Association
The Indian Arrival Committee
The Rastafari Council
CIOG
The Dharmic Sabha
ACDA
All of these entities constitute what we call civil society. If you are going to select a person from civil society to sit on the MSG, then the dozens and dozens of civil society organisations must be invited to the general gathering that will select its representative. But this is not the route TUS is taking. It wants someone from among its incestuous playground to sit in the MSG.
What the Government of Guyana must do is to interface with EITI in Norway and describe the nature and conduct of this narrow group in Guyana. Finally, Transparency Institute Guyana said that it sent to the government “a list of excellent bona fide, independent civil society representatives.” Guess who these representatives are? The same groups named above. If those people are independent, then Adolph Hitler was the female version of Mother Theresa.
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.