Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 25, 2015 Features / Columnists, My Column
When President Donald Ramotar announced the date for elections, I was certain that he did so in anger and did not take anything into consideration. First, he prorogued Parliament with the hope of engaging the political opposition in dialogue.
After all, when he came to office he did so with a promise to talk to the political opposition whenever the opposition thought necessary. I then had cause to knock the opposition for not trying to talk things over with the President. Not long after, I learnt that President was often intransigent, so that the talks got nowhere.
Pretty soon, the call for a return to parliament became strident. The British and the Americans got into the act, prompting the government to accuse them of meddling in Guyana’s internal affairs. The government was so incensed that the Head of the Presidential Secretariat went as far as to say that the imminent departure of the British envoy could not fast enough.
Those are harsh words when it is considered that the British represent a source of funding for this poor country. The British Government would not sit idle while its diplomat in Guyana was being pilloried by the Guyana Government. Indeed my government had similar harsh words for a now departed American Ambassador. To my mind we were picking fights with people we needed for our very survival.
Some of my friends told me that the government had concluded that there were India and China to provide all the money we may need. This was all well and good until the territorial issue came into focus. But I said to myself that the government knew what it was doing. What I did not see coming was the involvement of the European Union. And I had to be stupid.
These combinations must have got President Ramotar so angry that he decided that he was going to go into elections, come hell or high water. So after talking with the elections commission, he announced a date. He did not take time to dissolve the parliament nor did he issue a proclamation about the date. So there was a legal issue as well as a political issue.
Some in the opposition concluded that he was bluffing, while others said that he had thrown out a bait to get a reaction and at the same time, to get the foreign governments off his back. But in doing so he now runs the risk of estranging some of his very supporters. The date, May 11, clashes with some external examinations.
The issue was pointed out to President Ramotar who, according to the government media houses, declared that he was not changing the date. The announcement also revealed that not everyone in the Cabinet can influence certain decisions. The Education Minister was there, but I can bet my last dollar that she was not consulted.
However, President Ramotar has not ignored the issue, so the Education Minister must make alternative arrangements for the examinations. I would have thought that the Guyana Elections Commission would have been asked to make arrangements for polling. I suspect that the decision to give the task to the Education Minister has something to do with numbers. Fewer students than voters would be involved in the examinations.
Then someone raised the issue of elections violence. Indeed, no parent would have his child out on the streets if there is going to be violence. Further, the issue of violence would weigh so heavily on the mind of the children that none can predict how they would perform in the examinations.
The one good thing is that as Guyanese we have matured, so the question of election violence should not be an issue. We have had clean and non-problematic elections ever since 2006.
And so the elections campaign has begun. In fact, from the time President Ramotar announced the date, which he can still change, the state-owned television station began to run a series of advertisements lauding the virtues of the government. There have been no such advertisements from the opposition side. We will then come to the issue of who is paying, if anyone is paying at all.
I saw the report prepared by the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Sri Lanka for the elections there, and what struck me was the similarity to Guyana. The hogging of the state media, the provision of jobs to friends and family and the sudden wealth of the politicians, all made me think that perhaps Sri Lanka learned from us.
And as if this was the icing on the cake, the head of the Commonwealth observer team was none other than our own Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s longest-serving executive president.
Over in that country that was once Ceylon, the new government is pursuing a course of prosecutions. It would be interesting to see where they may lead, but for sure our politicians are taking note. That is perhaps why Dr Roger Luncheon, on Friday, said that they would be out there campaigning with a commitment that may never have been seen in Guyana.
Meanwhile, as a reporter, I wonder at the possible development of acrimony between the people of this country. Every time elections come around certain dislikes surface; friends become casual acquaintances. Then there will be the charges and counter charges. Indeed I could have waited another two years for these.
Of course, it has not escaped my notice that parts of the nation would have been mobilized on account that May 5 is Indian Arrival Day. If this is to be used as a political forum then I would be disappointed in my country which should have moved away from relying on any race vote.
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
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