The PSC’s pappy show

May 30, 2011 Letters

---

Dear Editor,
At the recent forum hosted by the Private Sector Commission (PSC), the PPP presidential candidate stated emphatically that executive power sharing was not a question up for consideration and that the PPP believes in the winner takes all concept of governance and that it likes the Burnhamite 1980 constitution.
Mired in a morass of power drunkenness Mr. Donald Ramotar and the PPP will not concede that they need not share executive power with an opposition party for there to be an acceptable system of power sharing.
There are enough structures that could be made functional to ensure the opposition participates meaningfully in the governance mechanism of the country without being part of the executive.
Take for example Guyana’s biggest governance farce, the Parliament, power sharing means giving the opposition a fair opportunity to present bills and have them debated in a respectable way both in the full house and (where applicable) in the relevant select committees, convening parliament on days designated for members questions and provide answers in a reasonable time.
The government is unwilling to include the opposition in the search process for the appointment of an Ombudsman, or to properly appoint a Chancellor of the Judiciary, procurement commission and advisory committee on broadcasting, just to start the list. What Guyanese are asking is not for the opposition to share Ministerial portfolio with the PPP but for active inclusiveness in the functional governance mechanisms of the country.
The combined opposition received a mandate from more than 40% of the Guyanese voters yet, at all levels within the governance structure, be it parliament, central or regional government, quasi government boards and agencies, public corporations or constitutional commissions the voice of the opposition is completely and utterly obliterated. The government continues to use strong arm tactics to bully their way around Guyana.
The government has even actively demonstrated its willing to break the law and flout the constitution to prevent all forms of meaningful opposition participation in the governance of the country. This mode of governance makes 40+% of the population genuinely feel alienated, excluded and disenfranchised.
In this context it is not difficult to understand the Buxton ire of Ogunseye, in his logic the PPP is the only party entering the 2011 elections with a zero tolerance approach to any form of power sharing, as in the past 18 years he sees no post-election inclusivity in the decision making process for the mostly Black 40% combined opposition voters if the PPP wins in 2011, there is a genuine feeling of hopelessness.
Ramotar’s dogma confirms that PPP believes in complete domination by the governing representatives of the 50+% who voted them into office over the representatives of the 40+% who voted against. Anyone who dares to raise a dissenting voice or even appear to speak on behalf of the marginalised opposition (and its’ supporters) are either charged for treason, thrown in jail, have their property vandalized, face police harassment, slandered and physically attacked, discriminated against in the provision of government services, indecently terminated from public positions and denied their rightfully hard earned retirement benefits.
In the case of business owners who appear to be remotely sympathetic to the opposition the population is told not to support their business.
What is shocking to me is that the crowned princes of the private sector were in their full royalty to listen to Ramotar pontificate about why the PPP should be given another five years in office and not a single person asked Ramotar what is his position on the repeated call by Jagdeo for citizens to boycott a legitimate private sector business in the form of Kaiteur News, if Ramotar does not agree with Jagdeo why hasn’t he condemned this action in the strongest possible terms.
If there were no other questions asked at the forum, that one should have been poignantly put to Ramotar. By not putting that question to their guest, Guyana’s business royalty has reduced the event to a pappy show at which the chair should have donned a big red nose. An attack on any segment of the private sector is an attack on the private sector as a whole. The words of Martin Niemöller are very relevant in this case;
“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
The first lines of that piece should be revised to read; first they attacked Glen Lall we didn’t say a word because we are not Lalls, then they attacked Kaieteur News we didn’t speak out because we are not printers….
Let me put this Bob Marley quiz to the members of the private sector body, “Tell me! Whatcha gonna do? Oh, whatcha gonna do? When they come for you?”
Lenno Craig

---

---