Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 29, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
When Mr. Ralph Ramkarran wrote in the Chronicle that it would serve the PNC good to apologize for among other things, authoritarian policies when that party ruled Guyana, to the analyst, it appeared to be a comical observation. Maybe Mr. Ramkarran does not see seven years as an enduring period. But for a majority of people in this world if you ask them if seventeen years is a long time for one party to rule a country, there is no question they would answer in the affirmative.
The obvious question comes up then if you agree. In those years, has the PPP Government implemented authoritarian policies just like the PNC regime? Unfortunately, Mr. Ramkarran in his piece did not elongate on the concept of authoritarian government. One suspects that all, without exception, PPP leaders for very devious, Machiavellian reasons, would argue that an elected government cannot be dictatorial because dictatorships are unelected regimes. This is not only a preposterous but extremely foolish position to take. The best reply to use against that silly view would be Mrs. Janet Jagan’s columns in the Mirror. Week after week, she raged, fulminated and cried out about the lack of democracy in the US. It was as if the US did not have elected governments.
The scholar who made his name in the academic world by arguing that elected governments can be terribly authoritarian is Professor Fareed Zakaria in the US who now has his own CNN commentary. Zakaria rose to fame with his theory of “illiberal democracy” in that in the spread of democracy from the eighties onwards, elected governments have not deepened freedoms in their countries. On the contrary, he says, some ruling parties have used their mandate to weaken constitutionalism. Zakaria was quite astute in arguing that in ethically divided societies, free and fair elections will not necessarily bring freedom. It is as if he had Guyana in mind.
Some of the countries that would fit the Zakaria model would be Russia, a few of the republics that emerged after the fall of the USSR, Pakistan, Venezuela and Guyana. It is interesting to note that Zakaria referred to Antigua as partially free. One wonders how he would describe Guyana if he was to study this country. Zakaria urged the US Government to concentrate less on emphasizing free elections in countries that the US has some leverage with but insist on institutionalizing constitutional features that would limit the government’s control over the society. Zakaria’s thinking did find its way into the foreign policy of George Bush.
In Guyana, it would appear that from 2001, the Bush presidency did demand profound changes from the Jagdeo Government. Some of these included the Fiscal Amendment Act which took away widespread powers from the Ministers and the President in granting duty free concessions. The National Procurement Board which removed the Government from opening tenders whenever it chose to (the Board is yet to be constituted). There are the Sectoral Committees of Parliament. This aspect of Zakaria’s advocacy is controversial but nevertheless has found favour with the American Government. For this writer, Guyana, Venezuela and Russia are the perfect fit for the Zakaria model.
By now readers would want to know why the title of this essay. Well, it has to do with illiberal democracy in Guyana. Switzerland is a country that when leaders, particularly from the Third World, go there, it gives rise to all kinds of speculations. If President Jagdeo was there (he said he was going to Canada and then to Switzerland), then why has he not tell the nation what business he conducted. If it is private, then fine. If it was on behalf of Guyana, then he has an electoral obligation to explain what he did. It couldn’t be that it was related to low carbon development.
If that was the case, Mr. Jagdeo would have shouted it from the roof top because he is advocating climate change at a frenetic pace. Why then withhold information about a climate change meeting he attended in Switzerland. When you speculate this Government cusses you down. If a commentator puts a cynical meaning to the trip, Government spokespersons would demand that you should have sought a response from the relevant authorities before putting pen to paper or opening your mouth. Unfortunately when he came back from Switzerland last week (assuming he was there) and held a press conference last Friday, no reporter asked him what he was doing in Switzerland. The opposition must demand an answer from PM Hinds during question time in Parliament as to why Mr. Jagdeo was in a country that has the most secret banking laws on Planet Earth.
JAGDEO ADDING MORE DANGER TO GUYANA AND THE REGION
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