Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 01, 2009 Letters
Dear Editor,
Your news item, “Legislation approved for mayoral elections,” (December 30) is yet another confirmation before the eyes of Guyanese that this Bharrat Jagdeo-led PPP is on an autocratic run, and must be stopped in the interest of maintaining and developing our struggling democracy!
I am no supporter of Mr. Robert Corbin and the PNC; but, as I had reason to point out recently, the PNC is the main Parliamentary opposition, and has MPs who are being paid taxpayers’ money to represent the views and interests of those Guyanese who do not support the Government on specific issues. Many Guyanese do not support this latest move by the PPP regime!
That is why I guardedly approved what Mr. Corbin reportedly said when he warned that the PPP regime “should forget about the idea of hosting the (government-backed select mayoral and municipal chairman) elections without local government reforms,” and that if it doesn’t, then he was “adamant that it would never be allowed to happen”.
The only problem is, given Mr. Corbin’s failure to provide responsible and robust leadership of the PNC, as the main Parliamentary opposition, against the troubling machinations of the PPP regime, one has to wonder if his pledge to prevent the Government from going ahead with select mayoral elections is hollow.
In other words, will he actually do something within the confines of the law, or will he eventually play along to get along, in the hope of sharing power with the PPP?
If the Government goes ahead and stages one single election for mayor or municipal chairman without Local Government reforms or constitutionally due nationwide Local Government elections, and the PNC does not prevent this, then the people ought to draw their final conclusions and start looking to throw their support behind another opposition party that will stand up for them.
Otherwise, Guyana will be taken back down the road once travelled during the Burnham era, when the PNC government repeatedly used its Parliamentary majority to legislate Burnham into President-for-life and the PNC into ignoble paramountcy status. Guyanese need to recognise that this latest move by the PPP regime has little or nothing to do with the disgraceful manner in which the nation’s capital is being administered by a mayor who has not faced election in 14 years.
Mayor Green is still there, because of the failure of the PPP regime to obey the law and stage Local Government elections, as prescribed by the Constitution. Oh yes, staging National or Local Government elections is not a political option to be conveniently executed by political parties in power; it is Constitutional and anything to the contrary is unlawful.
This self-centred PPP regime has successfully suckered an unwitting PNC into going along with it to break the law by supporting the delaying of Local Government elections in the name of needed reforms.
Then when it is convenient to do so, such as when the capital hits a crisis moment, the PPP regime then quickly blames the Mayor and City Council; but the truth is the mayor is serving at the pleasure of the Central Government, which failed for 14 years to stage Local Government elections.
Don’t blame the mayor; the buck ultimately stops at the President!
The same way the Central Government suddenly came up with the creative idea to empower its Local Government Minister to call selectively staged mayoral and municipal chairman elections, it could also have come up with creative ways to implement even temporary reforms in order to stage nationwide LG elections, and then continue to review the reforms until there is final consensus. In normal democracies, electoral reforms should never delay elections for 14 years. That’s gross ineptitude or deliberate manipulation of the process for narrow partisan reasons.
But most observers believe that the PPP regime is determined in its effort to control all systems of Government the way the PNC did. The biggest sticking point of late is that there is a disparity in the numbers that GECOM has from this year’s house-to-house enumeration exercises and the numbers the PPP has from the 2006 exercises, and this does not augur well for the PPP.
So it has resorted to this new method, which it hopes would give it greater access and control of voter numbers in elections that are on a municipal-by-municipal basis. The people of Guyana need to see for themselves that the political culture being nurtured by the PPP is not about the people, but about the party. This crass selfishness needs to be stopped, whether by the PNC, the AFC or civil society.
Nineteen ninety-two was not about merely ending the PNC autocracy and replacing it with a PPP autocracy, but about the people of Guyana taking back their country from selfish politicians and parties. The people have to keep fighting for their rights, because power concedes nothing without a struggle.
Emile Mervin
Jagdeo giving Exxon 102 cent to collect 2 cent.
Apr 25, 2024
By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – The French Diplomatic Office in Guyana, in collaboration with the Guyana Olympic Association and UNICEF, hosted an exhibition on Tuesday evening at the...Kaieteur News – Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, persists in offering... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]