Coil: What dey does really do?

by Vidyaratha Kissoon

A PPP supporter curses me all the time about the ‘change’.. so you vote for change, nutting aint doing, money aint coming, parking meter, container, etc. etc.

‘Is whuh Moses does really do? Yuh ain’t hear he deh downstairs of Harmon and he gah fuh report to Harmon? “

I didn’t realise that the Prime Minister’s office was now in the Ministry of the Presidency compound. I thought it was in Kingston somewhere . Even though I read the papers and the GINA Newsletter every day, I really don’t know what is the portfolio of the Hon. Moses Nagamootoo MP, 1^st Vice President and Prime Minister.

According to a June 2015 article in the Guyana Chronicle, there was to be a website at http://www.opm.gov.gy. The site returns the 403.Forbidden message . This brought back memories of the nineteen nineties when Internet first came to Guyana and Moses Nagamootoo’s Ministry of Information used to apply filters to block sites deemed unsuitable and you used to get a message which said “The Minister of Information has blocked this site “ or something similar. The Minister of Information got busy with other work and lifted the blocks.

The Office of the Prime Minister has a Facebook page and if you miss the Prime Minister in the newspaper, there are nice updates here. While Dr David Hinds hopes that Moses will go and reassure the Indian communities that there is no racism, – the PM visited the Rupununi and promised to upgrade radio Paiwomak and talked about bridges and tourism. He has been telling the sugar workers that their severance can’t be paid because of a court order and he attended a birthday party.

It seems that Bharrat Jagdeo thinks the PM responds to his ramblings.. not that the PM is  the Minister for Jagdeo as such but it seems his profile raises when Jagdeo throws a crank or so.

There was something about the Prime Minister and Governance but there is no information of what that really means, and how that is being done and when things will be done.

The Prime Minister has not had to deal with any protest action so people must be generally happy with whatever he is doing. The PPP say that he has no power, but that is not the same thing as saying he is abusing power.

Minister Harmon said that the Prime Minister will be chairing a committee looking at how small contractors can access Government work. This information was not on the PM’s Facebook page at the time I checked.

A year has passed, the roaring jaguar stickers and posters are beginning to fade – what dey does really do?

More than one Coil has to be burned though because the list of Ministers is long.

H.E. Brigadier (Ret’d) David Arthur Granger, MSS

President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana

The Tuesday after the President said the dress codes at publc offices were backward, a security guard told me that ‘no, no .. no bill aint pass yet to change the dress code.. “.. ‘but you dress arite tho”.. .

I hail the President for his own dress code.. no suit and tie and I love how he stands out when he is standing with others who insist on the suit and tie thing.

The President has said many nice things. He has said good things about LGBT tolerance, about the importance of the free press, about Georgetown local governance , and again about accountability and consultation and containers and parking meters.

The nice talk is welcome but the trickle down impact depends on the implementation of laws and policies and the accountability of the responsible Ministers and other public servants.

Hon. Lt Col (Ret’d) Joseph Harmon, MP

Minister of State

The Minister of everything, or a lot of things. The point man of the Chinese Government in Guyana when they had to deal with Cde Baishanlin. The Minister has survived the jet ride in China, and the temporary fellowship with BK Tiwari . A non-PPP supporter asked ‘You aint see that he change his mount now’. From the no apologies , there seems to be information sharing which is not generating any antagonism. The Minister’s response to Jagdeo is more measured than the Government’s. Minister Harmon didn’t cuss out about who is a Jaganite and so , and asked that there be consideration of education, infrastructure and social ills affecting Jagdeo’s people.

Minister Harmon might be on to something because Jagdeo though cannot talk much about the education, infrastructure and social ills affecting ‘his people’ as it would be an indictment of his party’s administration.

The Minister it seems has a large capacity to deal with many things, and he will have to take on the Department of the Environment – or protection from the exploitation of oil, gold and forests which Minister Trotman will be encouraging.

It is not like if Minister Harmon would have to be regulating Minster Trotman.

Hon. Winston Felix, MP

Minister of Citizenship

The Minister of the deportees and the Passport lines. The Government has been able to separate immigration from the Ministry of Public Security. The Minister has outlined plans , some activities of which have fixed dates, which can’t seem to implemented soon enough for dealing with the passport lines. There is no mention though of extending the life of validity of the passport to 10 years. For some strange reason, we ended up with thin 5 year passports. USA, UK, Canada, Jamaica, Barbados offer 10 year passports for adults.

This can’t be about making money for the Government or the people who provide the passports or the sno-cone vendors outside the Passport office.

Hon. Amna Ally, MP

Minister of Social Cohesion

People keep asking what this Ministry really does. Minister Amna Ally has been busy with buses, boats and bicycles. The Minister was there in Region 5 in January 2016 when buses were handed over to Region 5 and the apparent insult happened. There seems to have been some confusion over the protocols and the invitations. The Region 5 RDC has not been able to meet since then as the APNU+AFC councillors believe the Regional Chairman should apologise for not attending the event. There might be more things which are bothering the APNU+AFC councillors.

In August 2015, I chaired an interaction with the Ministry of Social Cohesion and residents of Region 3. There was a head table and none of the Regional head officials were there. The Regional Vice-Chair spoke from the floor and questioned the Minister about the lack of consistency in the protocols (In Region 10, the Regional Chairman was at the head table.)

The Minister unreservedly apologised for the lack of observance of the protocols.

I realised afterwards that the Minister had used her party contacts to help mobilise for that meeting, and that perhaps there was confusion over what kind of meeting was being held and how invitations were issued.

The Minister has not said if she or the President felt insulted by the Regional Chairman’s absence at the bus donation. There is wonderful opportunity here for the Ministry of Social Cohesion to show how it works and what it does beyond buses and bicycles.

(Update 2 August, 2016 – The Minster of Social Cohesion and the President were in  Region 5 and the conflict has been resolved )

Hon. Carl B. Greenidge, MP

2nd Vice President & Minister of Foreign Affairs

I hear Minister Greenidge talk, in the nice modulated tones, posh like how we were indoctrinated that diplomats and so should talk. He managed to stay out of the Baishanlin fiasco. I remember a picket in 2012 outside parliament and then this brown car, convertible, cover down , spun around into the Parliament parking lot. A Jaguar someone told me.. and how different Mr Greenidge looked from his colleagues arriving at parliament.

I keep looking for the Jag , but it seems that the socialist SUV things are now provided to all Ministers. I keep checking to see if we could hear more about the economic diplomacy and how Guyana will be engaging China and the others. This ‘waiting on China’ for example with our forests is not very Burnham like. And is it time for Guyana to do like Jamaica and review its membership of CARICOM?

The Minister has revived the Foreign Service Institute and has convened a group of retired men as advisors. It is still a shame that the knowledge and skills of the PPP people like Ambassador Elizabeth Harper and Dr Odeen Ishmael do not seem to be formally included. Maybe they were asked and refused. Maybe  non-retired people who are teaching International Relations and who are researching International Relations were also asked and refused to be part of the Foreign Service Think Tank.

Hon. Khemraj Ramjattan, MP

3rd Vice President & Minister of Public Security

It has been awhile since the Minister was in the news about anything until Friday when it was reported he was walking around Bourda Market talking about Trafficking in Persons. This was a World Day event. Where would the Minister have been if there was no World Day?

He had talked in June 2015 about the Forensic Lab and DNA testing but no updates since. The Minister did talk about the difficulty of ‘removing Vagrants from the environs of the Public Buildings, It is not clear when the vagrants outside of the Public Buildings became a threat to public security unlike say the sane family that allegedly murdered a child and his father and uncle in Black Bush, or the bandits threatening to shoot a four year old child in Canje.

It seems clear that the prospects of conviction and quick police action are not enough to prevent crime.

The Minister has not responded to the calls to reconvene the National Committee for the Prevention of Interpersonal Violence. The IDB is funding some work in some communities, and the Minister might need help to mobilise resources to fund work in the dozens of other communities which are dealing with crime and violence.

Hon. Sydney Allicock, MP

4th Vice President & Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs

There was an interesting headline in GINA – Minister Allicock pitches idea of Kurupukari Bridge to Prime Minister. It is not clear if the PM is the intermediary between the Minister Alliicock and the Minister of Public Infrastructure. Is this headline an indication of the level of influence that Minister Alliicock and the Junior Minister, Ms. Valerie Garrido Lowe have on their cabinet colleagues to improve the lives of Indigenous Peoples?

Hon. Volda Lawrence, MP

Minister of Social Protection

President Granger has said he will not replace Minister Lawrence as Minister of Social Protection. has demonstrated sound army leadership, standing by Minister Volda Lawrence and his other party colleagues despite calls for a replacement.

Unless GINA knows something else – the GINA profile of the Minister accessed on 31 July, 2016 says that ‘..Ms. Lawrence is currently employed by the American School..”

The Ministry of Social Protection is in dire need of competent and skilled leadership, a technocrat rather than a politician who has to put party interests first as the Minister did when handling the allegations of child sexual abuse against her comrade.

There are demands on the State to provide effective social services, especially for children. Since the fire at the Drop In Centre, there have been no indications of proactive responses by the Ministry to ensure that the State homes around the country are safe. There is no indication that the Minister is working on a Visiting Committee to deal with the inspections of the homes.

There are no indications that the Ministry of Social Protection is bothering with Section 44 of the Domestic Violence Act which lists critical actions for the Ministry to deal with Domestic Violence.

There are indications that there are some inter-Ministry groups which work on things like the ‘vagrants around the public buildings’.

The President is responsible for convening the National Task force on the Prevention of Sexual Offences, and for some strange reason, has not talked or given any commitment to doing this.

A non-PPP supporter told me ‘doan fughet the President is a chess player’.

There are probably many chess games in progress, and some of them are multi-dimensional.

It will be up to the non-chess players to work with the Government and others to ensure that no citizen loses.

A second coil will be have to lit on the remaining players/pieces on the chess boards.