What is the TUC’s position on the March 2020 election?
Kaieteur News – In this country, so much is happening at an ultrasonic rate that no columnist or commentator can submit pieces that have already been completed. Simply put, you have to put those on the back burner and look at the developing plays. Lincoln Lewis published a charge letter in Kaieteur News on January 24 in which he wrote that I had tried to “drag the TUC into the alleged fraud of election rigging.” So many things happened that my response had to wait until now.
Mr. Lewis said that his numerous rejections of the official results of the March 2020 election were not in his capacity as TUC Secretary General. On the surface one should not argue with that. If Lewis pointed out that his attitude was Lewis the person and not Lewis the TUC Secretary General, then why should I question that? It’s his business, not mine.
As someone who studies this society as a trained academic, I can say without even a modicum of hesitation that I have never seen a job from the TUC that Lewis was not the spokesperson. I have never seen a TUC press conference that was not hosted by Lewis. I have never seen a letter from the TUC that was not signed by Lewis.
In January, several so-called civil society groups – Transparency Foundation – Guyana chapter, and an obscure entity called the Guyana Reform Election, together with the Catholic Church formed an organization called CSF – Society Forum Civil. (See my critical comments on this group in my column of January 19, 2021, “I interrupt my analysis of 2020 because of these stories”). Guess who represented the TUC as the TUC as part of the group and was it photographed with the group? Lincoln Lewis!
So let’s move on. If Lewis did not speak for the TUC when he supported APNU + AFC’s stance on the March election, then the question becomes obvious – what is the TUC’s attitude to the most disgraceful national elections in Guyana history? Surely the TUC President Coretta McDonald can’t. Her job must be the same as her party’s position – she’s an APNU senator. The second obvious question then, is who is to outline the TUC’s stance?
It cannot be Lewis if the TUC has accepted the results as a fair and legal process that brought lawful government to power. He cannot be Lewis because it will create widespread mental concerns for him as he does not receive the results as reported by GECOM. In fact, as the five-month imbroglio was drawing to a close, Lewis urged President Granger to use his presidential status to cancel the election results (see my column on this aspect of Lewis’s behavior – Wednesday, December 22, 2020, “Granger ignore Lewis, will Trump ignore Flynn?)
Let’s assume the TUC accepts that the election is legal and that the PPP victory is legitimate then Lewis and McDonald will be a nightmare on Woolford Avenue – one is an APNU senator, the other a crucifixion force against the PPP victory . My view is that such a nightmare will not happen because Lewis is the TUC and the TUC is Lewis.
This begs the question of the end of term in Guyanese trade unionism – Norris Witter has been head of the National Union of Workers for fifteen years now. Lewis has been the TUC’s GS for more than 25 years. Patrick Yard has joined more than 30 years as head of the Public Services Union.
Let’s end with one of the most heartbreaking contradictions in Guyana since the beginning of 2021. The CSF was birthed, according to its founders, to fight for the implementation of Article 13 in the constitution. Lewis stated in his letter to me on January 24 that the Article is intended to create an inclusive democracy. How can Lewis be part of a CSF that wants inclusive democracy and called this very gentleman open to the 2020 election loser, David Granger, to use his power as president at the time to cancel the election results?
This was an advocacy to disregard the exact constitution that Lewis wanted Guyanese to benefit from. The constitution does not give a president the power to cancel an election. Not even GECOM can do that; just a court of law. If Granger had done what Lewis encouraged him to do, then Guyana would have excluded dictatorship not inclusive democracy. I have no respect for the other constituents of the Civil Society Forum, but how can the Catholic Bishop be sitting next to a man who wanted the president to cancel a free and fair election?
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)