Gov’t would do well to sit up and take notice of the steel of the teachers protest

Imagine the utter irony - it took a misstep from the Chief Education Officer which enabled the courts to intervene and bring the teachers strike to an end. It was an inevitable end which could have come much sooner if the government had taken its role more seriously and shown the type of leadership which the courts showed.

The government said the strike was political in nature. But if anything, it was the government who made it political. They simply ignored the teachers because they knew that most were from the opposition party. Contrast the way they dealt with the teachers’ strike as against the sugar workers’ strike. Senior government officials - the same government individuals most vocal against the teachers strike - rushed to meet with the protesting sugar workers and found a solution. With the teachers they accused, threatened and ultimately ignored them.

Part of the government’s argument is that they recently improved teachers’ salaries. But here again there are double standards between the striking teachers and the striking sugar workers. Because the sugar industry has been the beneficiary of massive government financial assistance for years. But we didn’t see government officials go and accuse the striking sugar workers of already spending so much money on them.

I think the government simply expected the protest to peter out and show the kind of weakness which the opposition party has displayed in their role as opposition. But they were completely wrong! Because the issue was never political in the first place and was a core bread and butter issue which all of the workers in this country are facing. Despite all of the hype and self praise about the pace of the development of Guyana, the majority of citizens of this country are struggling to survive much less live a comfortable life. All the gleaming new high-rise buildings or spanking new roads cannot mask this inequality. Is our government so detached from reality that they don’t see this?

The government would do well to sit up and take notice of the steel of the teachers’ protest. With better leadership, the GPSU may have also already gone on the streets. Rest assured that still remains a distinct possibility. The poor of this country are suffering and looking for means to make their feelings known. The coalition possibly lost the last elections due to how they treated the sugar workers. This government is doing likewise to the public servants. It seems that while our main political parties try to say they are different, their actions show that they are eerily similar.