Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 15, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
One should make political concessions while in power. It’s painful in the wilderness. Trusting the PPP and an opposition politician like Bharrat Jagdeo is the worst mistake any of his political opponents could make, and it appears that President Granger has learned that lesson.
One recalls that the Constitution required that the then Prime Minister Sam Hinds should have become the president of Guyana when President Janet Jagan stepped down. That went nowhere. Not only did the PPP use the 1980 constitution to its advantage, it circumnavigated it to discover how to by-pass Prime Minister Hinds, in order to transfer Presidential powers to a specific individual.
Twenty three years after it gained power the PPP lost the 2015 general elections. When “the Audits” in 2015 began to tarnish the PPP Mr. Jagdeo offered to help President Ganger find monies and other assets alleged to have gone missing during the PPP’s time in office. One could scarcely avoid amusement at this cynical and disingenuous attempt to mislead the APNU-AFC, down whatever rabbit holes they would allow themselves to be misled. As it turned out this went nowhere. How could it? One only has to imagine William Knight or Henry Morgan offering to lead a Spanish Viceroy to the place where buried treasure taken from the Spanish Main could be unearthed.
This brings us to the unfolding story concerning the list of possible candidates for the Chairman of the Elections Commission that was submitted to President Granger by the leader of the opposition, Mr. Jagdeo.
Having enjoyed its extensive powers for two decades the PPP adopted a cynical but not an unexpected posture. It no longer cared to respect the Constitution’s Presidential two-term limits. Further, there are ongoing court proceedings seeking to upend the constitution so that Mr. Jagdeo might run to become President again. That is not all.
Recall that, save for the unique circumstances of the Herdmanston Accord, the PPP refused throughout 2015-2016 to cooperate in purposeful efforts towards further serious necessary changes to the 1980 Constitution, in spite of urgings to the contrary by well-meaning Guyanese.
These are enough reasons to distrust every word uttered or deed done by Mr. Jagdeo and the PPP concerning elections, including the elections Commission. This is simple: people who disliked the 1980 constitution between1980-1991 but liked it from 1992 onwards, and then want it interpreted by the Court solely to regain access to its presidential powers, must not be trusted.
The old saying, “be careful what you wish for you might get it, “ is appropriate as one’s wishes may in the end bring unbearable regret. Imagine the predicament of the PPP if Mr. Jagdeo gets his wish to run for a third term but end up losing. It means that President Granger gets three terms, (at least 15 years). Imagine that the successor to Mr. Granger wins three successive elections (a further 15 years). Would the PPP then cry out in agony that their losses derive from rigged election, and would the PPP then call for the Constitution to be changed, as it did from 1980 -1991? Both reactions are plausible because both reactions happened before.
Why is Mr. Jagdeo and his PPP parliamentary colleagues complaining that the President has rejected Mr. Jagdeo’s list from which the next Chairman of the Elections Commission might be drawn? The President acted lawfully under the unchanged Constitution. He considered Mr. Jagdeo’ list but rejected the whole lot. He could do this again and his actions would be perfectly constitutional.
What the President should not do however is to place himself and the APNU-AFC at any disadvantage, by giving Mr. Jagedo any weapon which the latter might use against him and the APNU-AFC. In the game of politics the simplest lesson of history is to win, using every lawful advantage, since it is harder to endure and explain loss. It is a lesson which the Democrats and Secretary Hilary Clinton just learned.
The lesson for all of Guyana’s Constitution anti- reformers is also simple. It is wiser to make concessions to reform the Constitution while one is in power rather than to endure the pain of its strongest powers, when those powers are used against you while in the wilderness.
Ivor Carryl
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