Democracy is still on trial in Guyana
AUGUST 24, 2011 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER LETTERS
Dear Editor,
Twenty years after Mikhail Gorbachev fell from power in a failed coup, all of the Soviet republics have swapped central planning for market economics. So too has Guyana, since 1989 under Hoyte’s ERP; but to what effect? This PPP Government has sustained this so-called market economy with a strong injection of authoritarianism shot through with corruption. The Berlin Wall may have fallen but for us democracy is still on trial in Guyana.
The world can learn some important lessons from Guyana; elections every five years is just not enough. We need to build some strong institutions that are independent of the Executive but this will never happen under a PPP Government since they are in love with Burnham’s constitution and the weak institutions we have in Guyana today. Guyana has now evolved into a full-fledged corrupt state that has a primary purpose of supporting the business buddies and ruling elites in their personal enrichment. Why do you think we can have a Commissioner of Police like Henry Greene still in place three years after his expiry date; he serves a purpose for the PPP. Everyone knows his role. I dare say, all of those NIS Inspectors who were allegedly kidnapped will definitely be giving serious consideration to the thought of how they can migrate away from these God forsaken rulers.
Doing your job in Guyana is just not an option anymore. Guyana has come from a culture and history of oppression; first the colonial rulers, then Burnham and now our Guyanese Stalin. As a people, we have spent too much time under oppression and this can be one of the explanations why our people have not found the sprit to fight more in 2011 as yet. The Alliance for Change (AFC) offers hope to these crushed people that within 120 days of getting into Government, we shall start the process of changing the constitution to truly give power to the people. The AFC shall take our case to the people in a referendum.
What we observe is a total crushing of the institutions of state and civil society. All that is left is traces of independent private business people, maybe a Yesu Persaud here and Robert Badal there and of course Chris Ram. However, there is a serious race in the private sector today by many to crawl over each other to surrender to Guyana’s Stalin. Even the influence of religion is under a clear and present danger. Gone are the days when the Catholic Church, Anglican Church, the Hindu Community under stallions like Sister Doreen Routie, Bishop Randolph George and Swami Aksharanandan can lead the nation from the platform of good governance and social justice for all. These people of the cloth too are subject to surgical persecution from the State, Henry VIII style.
Guyana has many laws and many organizations but what we do not have is enough people with the ethical strength like Edgar Heyliger to stand up to the ruling elite and in the process build national institutions. This rut started a long time ago but was mastered in the last decade. I can remember clearly the imposition of Norman Mclean on the GDF because of the rumblings from the professional officers against the fetching and stuffing of ballot boxes and the Walter Rodney connection by way of “Yam Vine” newsletter. The consequence of that imposition was a GDF that was a skeleton of its former self. The same can be said of the GRA, Bank of Guyana, UG, the Judiciary and all the other organization that should have been molded into National Institutions. Yet we choose not to learn.
To undo this mess where private businesses and rent-seeking officials think it is normal to exploit these weak organization to amass huge wealth, will take years. So let us be clear, the AFC is not promising honey and milk for all from Day 1. It would take years to find the Guyanese from all over the world to come back home to join those living in Guyana to rebuild, re-brand, re-orient and remold the nation. It will be hard work. Today this emergent oligarchy of business-political clans who were able to kidnap the state will pull out all stops to manipulate the elections to retain power by whatever means necessary.
We ask the Hinterland people, beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing as they peddle their lies to you with the clear objective of robbing you of your right to kick the PPP out of office. Look out carefully for which small party is fully loaded with cash in these elections and ask them, where they got the money from. The effect of these actions is corrosive since when a people think they are voting against the regime, they are actually be voting for the regime and the consequence of this is people will lose faith in the system of elections. The safest bet for all the people of Guyana is the AFC. We are playing no games, we have told the PNC in clear, unambiguous terms, No, we are not joining any coalition of convenience.
Despite these significant setbacks, the cause of sharing the economic pie more fairly among more of the people is not dead; the cause of reducing the gap between the haves and the have-nots is not dead; the cause of molding the nation with strong and independent institutions is not dead. The AFC is pushing ahead with its electoral efforts to sensitize the people to the socio-political and economic excess of the ruling cabal. We are going back to basics where our army of volunteers are meeting the people house by house, dam by dam, village by village; sensitizing them to the Guyanese prison we all live in today with the PPP controlling the keys.
We the people have two choices, vote for more of the same (PNC-APNU, PPP and TUF) and submit ourselves to the PPP jailers or forget about the jailer with his keys and just break the prison wall down by voting for change.
Sasenarine Singh
Source
AUGUST 24, 2011 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER LETTERS
Dear Editor,
Twenty years after Mikhail Gorbachev fell from power in a failed coup, all of the Soviet republics have swapped central planning for market economics. So too has Guyana, since 1989 under Hoyte’s ERP; but to what effect? This PPP Government has sustained this so-called market economy with a strong injection of authoritarianism shot through with corruption. The Berlin Wall may have fallen but for us democracy is still on trial in Guyana.
The world can learn some important lessons from Guyana; elections every five years is just not enough. We need to build some strong institutions that are independent of the Executive but this will never happen under a PPP Government since they are in love with Burnham’s constitution and the weak institutions we have in Guyana today. Guyana has now evolved into a full-fledged corrupt state that has a primary purpose of supporting the business buddies and ruling elites in their personal enrichment. Why do you think we can have a Commissioner of Police like Henry Greene still in place three years after his expiry date; he serves a purpose for the PPP. Everyone knows his role. I dare say, all of those NIS Inspectors who were allegedly kidnapped will definitely be giving serious consideration to the thought of how they can migrate away from these God forsaken rulers.
Doing your job in Guyana is just not an option anymore. Guyana has come from a culture and history of oppression; first the colonial rulers, then Burnham and now our Guyanese Stalin. As a people, we have spent too much time under oppression and this can be one of the explanations why our people have not found the sprit to fight more in 2011 as yet. The Alliance for Change (AFC) offers hope to these crushed people that within 120 days of getting into Government, we shall start the process of changing the constitution to truly give power to the people. The AFC shall take our case to the people in a referendum.
What we observe is a total crushing of the institutions of state and civil society. All that is left is traces of independent private business people, maybe a Yesu Persaud here and Robert Badal there and of course Chris Ram. However, there is a serious race in the private sector today by many to crawl over each other to surrender to Guyana’s Stalin. Even the influence of religion is under a clear and present danger. Gone are the days when the Catholic Church, Anglican Church, the Hindu Community under stallions like Sister Doreen Routie, Bishop Randolph George and Swami Aksharanandan can lead the nation from the platform of good governance and social justice for all. These people of the cloth too are subject to surgical persecution from the State, Henry VIII style.
Guyana has many laws and many organizations but what we do not have is enough people with the ethical strength like Edgar Heyliger to stand up to the ruling elite and in the process build national institutions. This rut started a long time ago but was mastered in the last decade. I can remember clearly the imposition of Norman Mclean on the GDF because of the rumblings from the professional officers against the fetching and stuffing of ballot boxes and the Walter Rodney connection by way of “Yam Vine” newsletter. The consequence of that imposition was a GDF that was a skeleton of its former self. The same can be said of the GRA, Bank of Guyana, UG, the Judiciary and all the other organization that should have been molded into National Institutions. Yet we choose not to learn.
To undo this mess where private businesses and rent-seeking officials think it is normal to exploit these weak organization to amass huge wealth, will take years. So let us be clear, the AFC is not promising honey and milk for all from Day 1. It would take years to find the Guyanese from all over the world to come back home to join those living in Guyana to rebuild, re-brand, re-orient and remold the nation. It will be hard work. Today this emergent oligarchy of business-political clans who were able to kidnap the state will pull out all stops to manipulate the elections to retain power by whatever means necessary.
We ask the Hinterland people, beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing as they peddle their lies to you with the clear objective of robbing you of your right to kick the PPP out of office. Look out carefully for which small party is fully loaded with cash in these elections and ask them, where they got the money from. The effect of these actions is corrosive since when a people think they are voting against the regime, they are actually be voting for the regime and the consequence of this is people will lose faith in the system of elections. The safest bet for all the people of Guyana is the AFC. We are playing no games, we have told the PNC in clear, unambiguous terms, No, we are not joining any coalition of convenience.
Despite these significant setbacks, the cause of sharing the economic pie more fairly among more of the people is not dead; the cause of reducing the gap between the haves and the have-nots is not dead; the cause of molding the nation with strong and independent institutions is not dead. The AFC is pushing ahead with its electoral efforts to sensitize the people to the socio-political and economic excess of the ruling cabal. We are going back to basics where our army of volunteers are meeting the people house by house, dam by dam, village by village; sensitizing them to the Guyanese prison we all live in today with the PPP controlling the keys.
We the people have two choices, vote for more of the same (PNC-APNU, PPP and TUF) and submit ourselves to the PPP jailers or forget about the jailer with his keys and just break the prison wall down by voting for change.
Sasenarine Singh
Source
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