Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 18, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Kaieteur News – Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has lost power in a confidence motion in which the voting was 59 for Netanyahu to stay and 60 for a new PM. There wasn’t a word in any quarter in any country that 60 was not a majority number that toppled Netanyahu. Only in Guyana that ghoulish thought is possible.
What then is a majority of 119 if it is not 60? It was not a nice moment in a long process, stretching back decades, of embarrassment for Guyana in the CARICOM region when the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that 33 is the majority of 65. I believe that particular moment was the cause of the eventual untergang of the APNU+AFC regime.
From the time the APNU+AFC leaders chose to argue that the no-confidence vote (NCV) was invalid because 33 was not a majority of 65, the world began to look upon these leaders with suspicion. Looking back at the 19 months involving the NCV and the rigging of the election, it was clear that either one person – President Granger – was running the show and had no capacity to strategise or he was accepting incomprehensibly incompetent advice.
Let us put ourselves in the shoes of the PNC leaders (I say PNC because I don’t think the AFC leaders were consulted on the shape of the NCV conspiracy thus their advice was not solicited with the exception of Raphael Trotman) and accept that strategies had to be invented to oppose the result of the NCV.
It may not be plural but singular – strategy instead of strategies. First, the 33 rejection was unwise because it just was a non-starter. The world is accustomed to a victory by one in all kinds of circumstances – politics, sports, legal jurisprudence. The world simply accepts that the reality of life is that you can win or lose by one. It made no sense arguing against that accepted approach that is hundreds of years old.
The PNC did not believe it would have lost the NCV and as the dust began to settle thoughts of ways to retain power until elections were due in May 2020 were born. In desperation it looked for any loophole. The 33 game was dead on arrival. No one will ever know what went through the minds of those judges when they heard the argument from a sitting Caribbean government that 33 is not a majority of 65. From thereon, the world began to question the judgment and credibility of Guyana’s president.
Equally foolish was the perspective used about dual citizenship. The constitution was clear that the dual citizen in the House was illegal but once a vote was cast by such a person, it could not be reversed. The PNC leaders knew this because it could have been read from the stance of the House Speaker, Dr. Scotland. The fact that he chose not to annul the NCV told you that he knew he didn’t have the legal power.
If President Granger did not know that under the constitution the vote of a dual citizen counts in parliament, then it was up to his advisors to counsel him. But maybe they were as incompetent as he. We come now to strategy and not strategies.
From the time the NCV was lost, the only game in town was to get GECOM to submit a million reasons why GECOM could not hold election. What should have happened then was that the asininity of 33 is not a majority and a cry that dual citizen cannot vote should never have entered the picture.
The APNU+AFC should have accepted the results of the NCV, agree to abide by its requirements and announce that the matter was now in GECOM hands. This stratagem was finally accepted but it came too late. The credibility of Granger and his team was already badly damaged by the embarrassing embrace of two foolish court cases one of which completely destroyed the credibility of the AFC.
At an AFC press conference, Khemraj Ramjattan said the silliest thing ever to come out of the mouth of a politician in this country. When I read that utterance, I felt so much anger that this was a person I once thought had a place in Guyanese politics.
Ramjattan told the press conference that the court case involving the dual citizenship question was concerned only with Charrandass’ illegal presence in Parliament and not the other parliamentarians. No matter how fresh in your memory was the performance of the PPP prior to 2015, when Ramjattan spoke those words, you knew that the APNU+AFC was a colossus mistake the electorate made in 2015.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this newspaper.)
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
SportsMax – West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews delivered a stellar all-round performance to lead her team to a commanding 113-run victory over Pakistan Women in the first One Day...Kaieteur News – For years, the disciples of Bharrat Jagdeo have woven a narrative of economic success during his tenure... 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]