Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 06, 2012 Letters
Dear Editor,
I view the Stabroek News, report dated 03/02/12 and captioned ‘Gov’t opposition set up three committees’ with guarded optimism and steadfast scrutiny.
The article confirmed that the government and the two parliamentary opposition parties have agreed to set up committees on Security, Governance and Economic Matters.
I am quite sure that those of us interested in seeing good and responsible government restored to Guyana would be eager to see meaningful collaboration on those important issues which impacts on our everyday life. So this first step, for many, would be one that we can appreciate.
However, we must not relinquish our efforts to ensure that these committees work in the interest of the people, and that agreements made will be followed through to their very end in order that the people of Guyana derive the true benefits.
I therefore, urge us all to continue to demonstrate good citizenship by being the ‘watchdogs’ of this process. Too often government arrangements of this nature are used as mere appeasement strategies, merely intended to quell immediate concerns, diffuse tension and distract attention from more pertinent issues.
When the PPP/C government believes that is has gotten things under control, it adopts an attitude of non-engagement with the other side, agreements are observed in the breach and the generally there in no enforcement of any arrangement decided by the parties.
This approach I refer to as the PPP/C ‘buying time measure’, by this time the regime has resorted to its old ways of ‘jilting’ the people, whose energy and interest they assume has weaned to the extent that they are no longer concerned with the issues that brought the parties, in the first place, around the bargaining table.
Recent history would remind us of the 1998 St. Lucia Accord signed between Late Leader of the PNCR and Former President Desmond Hoyte and Late President Janet Jagan, who both signed on behalf of their respective parties.
That agreement was entered into at a time when there was a serious political crisis in Guyana. What happened a few months after the signing is history, but what we know is that the people of this country are yet to gain full benefit from those terms agreed to in that St. Lucia Statement.
Janet Jagan relinquished the presidency shortly after and Bharrat Jagdeo took over. Maybe he can tell the nation what was accomplished during his time. What we knew is that prior to Mr. Hoyte’s death there was a yearlong impasse as the discussions were going nowhere.
In 2003 we had another agreement signed by the PPP/C government and the major opposition. This came shortly after Mr. Corbin took over as Leader of the PNCR, after Mr. Hoyte passed.
The agreement came as the impasse was already in a seriously protracted state. The Chronicle dated May 07, 2003, had this to say about this ‘momentous’ occasion, “the joint communiqué has effectively brought an end to a political impasse between the two major political parties for almost a year”.
This confirmed my position that these ‘so called’ agreements are entered into by the PPP/C merely out of convenience. This communiqué agreement identified specific actions to be undertaken by the government and which should have aided into the deepening of the democratic process.
Much ‘ado’ was made of the need for major Constitutional Reform, and Mr. Jagdeo lauded the Ethnic Relations Commission for being that agency with the capacity to address major ethnic fears and insecurities, including complaints of discrimination and victimization.
Almost twelve years after that signing and we are still talking major constitutional reform, more than a decade later the status of the Ethnic Relations Committee rests with the Courts, which ruled that is was unconstitutional, and the former head of the commission, Mr. Juan Edgill, now sits as a government minister. So much for impartiality, good ethics, moral decency, and good intentions!
For those who want to question whether I have reasons to be ‘apprehensively optimistic’ I say to you review the facts stated in this letter and just throw your minds a few years back.
These recent occurrences are fresh in the minds of many Guyanese who, therefore, are careful about being too optimistic. I however, impress upon us to stay engaged in the process and scrutinize every unveiling event. Let us hold people accountable; the advantage we have this time around is that we have rendered the PPP/C a minority government and that fact we must never take for granted.
Let us understand the power of the people and get accustomed to that idea of ‘majority rules with minority rights respected’. In our own situation we the people are the majority and so we rule. Let us not take this for granted, lest we all those who are obsessed with power to trample upon us.
So while we remain cautiously optimistic about this new dispensation let us remain focus and steadfast in our mission to bring real and meaningful change to our country.
Lurlene Nestor
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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