The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) in a strongly worded missive has objected to the impending passage of the Hamilton Green Pension Bill, noting that the treatment being offered to the “Princes of the City” reinforces the notion that the purpose of politics is to enrich politicians.

The Prime Minister Hamilton Green Pension Bill 2016 will be read for the first time in the National Assembly on Monday November 21, 2016. The Bill provides for Green to be paid a pension “based on the salary paid to the Prime Minister, as though he actually earned the said salary, taking into consideration his record of service as a legislator.”

Additionally, it provides for the former Prime Minister to receive all benefits provided for by the Former President (Benefits and Other Facilities) Act 2015. The value of these benefits are an annual pension of G$20,580,000, others benefits to the value of G$3.1 million annually, two vehicles provided and maintained by the State and two first-class annual airfares free transportation provided by the State.

But this Bill, according to GHRA is “utterly shocking.”

The association sought to justify its position by reasoning that the entire political career of Green reflects the attributes that have kept Guyana ethnically polarized. This polarized status, GHRA said, kept Guyana anchored at the bottom of all Caribbean indicators of social and economic progress in the modern era.

“As a young and ruthless politician in the early 1960s his name figured prominently in the violence from which this society has still to recover.” the statement added.

The association also outlined six reasons why it believes this Bill should not find its way into the Chambers on Monday.

The first reason, according to GHRA is that the Bill is insulting to Guyanese tax payers of this generation, who are prominently wage-earners, that have to “shoulder the burden of excessive pension” for people who have so curtailed this generation’s life chances.

Secondly, the association reasoned that there is no justification for this Bill beyond cronyism.

The third reason was that to date, Green has never apologized for the “humiliation, hardship and violence” to which the Guyanese were subjected to during his term in office.

Fourthly, the association believes that the idea that former Presidents and senior politicians deserve to be treated as ‘Princes of the City’ with excessive pensions and benefits, reinforces the notion that the purpose of politics is to enrich politicians.

GHRA also argued that a personalized Bill to reward Green for a lifetime of politics marked by “incompetence and divisiveness” is provocative in the context of the current administration’s anti-corruption campaign.

And finally, the body believes that the Guyana Parliament is still to distinguished itself for the quality of its contribution to public life. As such, it pointed out that if the Bill under discussion is entertained, its reputation would be further eroded by the ridicule it would justly attract.

According, GHRA is calling for the non-submission of this obnoxious Bill.

On Friday, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo shared his view that the Bill probably should not have been named after Green but left open for all current and future former Prime Ministers.

In 2015, Hamilton Green was conferred with Guyana’s second highest National Award, the Order of Roraima

“It may be an issue that we may want to re-look as to why it was the Hamilton Green pension bill and not former Prime Minister Pension Bill… If you want something to be seen as equitable, it has to have a broader rubric that allows it maybe to have it as a futuristic piece of legislation rather than simply trying to go back to correct an anomaly” the Prime Minister said.

Hamilton Green served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1985 t0 1992 in the President Desmond Hoyte administration. However, following the the loss of the People’s National Congress at the 1992 elections and Green’s public criticism of Hoyte, he was thrown out of the party and denied many of the benefits that should have recognised his time as Prime Minister.

He went on to serve as Mayor of Georgetown for over a decade.

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