Government and human rights groups in the war of words

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Government has described as “intellectually dishonest” and “politically motivated” a statement issued this week by the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) that came out in defense of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their important social responsibility which includes being the conscience of society.

The GHRA was responding to what it perceives to be relentless attacks by the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP), describing Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo’s latest statement as antithetical to the legacy of his party’s founder, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, and his call for “freedom from poverty and inequality in a new world order.”

The GHRA noted particularly Jagdeo’s attack on NGOs, which it said is based on an invented rationale of ‘hate for the PPP.’ It also said that Jagdeo’s version of the purpose of NGOs goes back to the 1990s, which saw the emergence of NGOs in numbers coinciding with the growth of welfare initiatives to ameliorate the Structural Adjustment program.

According to the GHRA, this approach left the way clear for donor influences on government to be virtually unchallenged. It shifted the accountability of governments away from citizens in the direction of financial institutions.

It said service delivery was established as the norm of civil society organizations. NGOs engaged in policy advocacy were viewed as an irritant to this process, effectively reducing policy matters to “technical” issues in the domain of “experts.”

The GHRA believes that the marginalization of NGOs from policy matters reflects the PPP’s “obsession with control of organizations of all descriptions.

“The recent onslaught against NGOs that surfaced once again at Babu Jaan was prompted not by criticisms of the government, but of ‘hatred to the ruling party.’ Despite being few and intermittent, critical voices have become visible and audible sources of irritation to an increasingly authoritarian ruling party,” it said.

However, Kwame McCoy, the Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, said that the GHRA’s statement is a “clumsy attempt to mischaracterize Jagdeo’s forthright and justified remarks. “Jagdeo is also the general secretary of the ruling party.

“To deliberately twist Dr. Jagdeo’s statements into an indictment of the entire NGO community is intellectually lazy and politically mischievous. The General Secretary’s remarks were directed at a specific pattern of conduct by certain actors, not at those NGOs that work tirelessly and objectively in the service of communities and continue to enjoy our respect, partnership, and unwavering support,” McCoy said.
Kwame McCoy, Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister

He said that the GHRA, among others, “has displayed a persistent and well-documented bias over the years, the roots of which are traceable to its leadership, its origins, and its consistent alignment, both in tone and in action, with the political opposition….”

McCoy said that any democratic actor, including Jagdeo, has the right to “expose and call out this duplicity for what it is.”

He said that the ruling party, since its founding in 1950, “has stood as the very bulwark of democracy and constitutional reform in Guyana” and that successive PPP governments created the “very political space that organizations now use, some productively and others manipulatively.” It is precisely because we value civil society that we are compelled to defend its integrity from political infiltration.

“Our economic and social recovery strategy post-1992 was built on inclusion, openness, and consultation, with civil society as a recognized partner in the process, from the design and implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme to the moral rearmament initiatives to the creation of independent rights commissions such as the Ethnic Relations Commission, the Rights of the Child Commission, and the Women and Gender Equality Commission,” McCoy added.