Well said! Also very relevant to Guyana. Constitutional reform should have been implemented before free and fair election. 

The point is that Fareed Zakaria didn't write anything of this, but some poor guy in India who works for him and gets payed in the order of cents...

You are very simpleminded.  Anyway, not sure why you think the "Arab Spring" has that much relevance to Guyana.  Guyana is a democratic nation with free and fair elections.  There needs to be some movement to ensure more inclusiveness of those feeling a bit shut-out.  However, the operating premise does not need to be overturned and reconstructed.

Guyana does not have free and fair elections; Guyana has free but unfair elections. 

Actually you are the simpleminded twit with nary a foundation for what you say except it is sourced from your narrow concern to conserve ethnic hegemony.

 

Guyana is as democratic now as in the burnham era. It is no less a totalitarian oligarchy with a suzerain/serf praxis as the PPP dictate every aspect of the lives of the people and with the aid of their own kith and kin dominates the rest of the nation through patronage and direct attrition.

 

There is no reconstructing the Westminster system in our society. One cannot devise a strategy that would qualify as fair in a system with an executive presidency and all parliamentarians creature of that executive. Add to that the bifurcation of the society along racial lines with a slight advantage to one side and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

The arab spring has direct correlates in that a corrupt oppressive domination by one group over another can never last even if the dominant grouop is armed to the teeth. The society eventually decays into chaos and has to reconstitute itself.

 

TK is right. We can save ourselves great potential grief is we admit to our corrupt ethnic based proclivities and walk away from the notion that it it the other side that is evil and must be kept from office. Men are not angels....yes men... all men and that is why we need government with checks and balance. Indians are not better than blacks or the other way around on average at anything.

 

Evil a s s h o l e s like you milk the fiction that one has to protect themselves from the "evil others" and so, at all cost keep them from office. You end up like Gaddafi, Ben Ali et al. The Arab spring has a lot to teach us. Let the PPP continue in their blatantly corrupt ways by depending on scaring the Indian masses into submission and the will get its due.

The constitution needs to be radically torn down and rebuilt on a premise of equal opportunity for all and heavy devolution of power to the local governments. You said that some people feel a bit left out! A bit! Just ask blacks how they feel about those in power or indians about the armed forces. Need I say more?

please stop it . . . it is NOT a lack of equal opportunity for Indians that has given us a majority Afro army in Guyana

 

just stop this foolishness . . . you're smarter than that

The British left a legacy of civil institutions and a culture that is similar to the rest of the Caribbean, and so yes, the Arab countries' experience with democracy is different from Guyana's. However, there is one difference - Guyana was left with an electoral system that conspired to oust the socialist regime at the height of the Cold War in America's backyard (the Truman doctrine), ad thus was born the un-democratic rule of the Burnham era. Hoyte's liberalism tried to reverse that and Dr. Jagan's party structure, and his focus on rehabbing the Guyana economy and these being his latter years, left Guyana with the Burnham Constitution largely intact and a culture of Governance and civil administration that many on this Board find abhorrent.

 

 

So cut to the chase, and amidst a skewed economy - one that is not growing from inside out, but with pockets of obvious opulence - do we like the way civil administration works - the police, the judiciary, the traffic cops, getting birth certificates and driver's licenses, etc. etc.)? The PPP has done many things expected of an economy like Guyana's (aided by rising gold prices and rice prices, though counterbalanced by rising imported fuel prices) - roads, bridges, hospitals, etc. It has enacted land reform that gave a lot of people housing equity and a stake in neighborhoods. There is a flourishing mercantile culture. But in spite of these things, there are many short comings.

 

It starts from the top. It starts with the politics. And so it is with posts on this Board - too much of the politics (which is like religion and familial fealty - meh gon chap up the man who slap meh brodda) and not listening to each other for what we have to contribute. Polictics is nice; clarity is good; no hem and haw; call it like it is. Pavi says it brutally. The Rev numbers it up, albeit foolishly and with some imbecility; can't figure out Storm's writings; Jalil colors it up. But it still comes down to practicasl solutions and practical analysis.

sorry Kari, i disagree; this is not about foolishness or imbecility [albeit relevant in another context] . . . Nehru is a frequent dipper in the cesspool of racism, and rev is an out and out bigot; ditto baseman, ABIDHA, Skeldon_man, etc.

 

There IS a difference, and if you do not have the balls to call a spade a spade, we get nowhere

 

just my 2 cents

===

 

This is absolutely correct!

YUh really that STUPID???? Guyana can be compared to the ME??? What AN ASS!!!!

 

It is very hard for someone with "dog donk" brain to make these connections. 

The major changes for constitutional reform need the approval of, as a minimum, two-thirds of the members of parliament.

 

What has the opposition parties done since 1992 to make the changes?

My classmate from UG days, President Donald Ramotar, said he sees nothing wrong with the Burnham Constitution. The PNC failed to institute meaningful constitutional reform under Herdmanston. 

AFC, PNCR , etc., are the opposition parties.

 

Wow...what a stroke of genius. 

There is also a referendum option to change the constitution. Also the Opposition as the Administration are compose of thinking beings. Surely the responsibility lies with both sides if there is a better way of doing the nation business that is not being broached.

Can't argue with that, but I have to ask does it help to dialog with Rev et al (sounds like a laxative ) on their (bigoted, racist) level? You have to know how to bring them back to the level of reasoned arguments, not stay in the realm of political rhetoric.

Redux, TK, JACKASS, Whena Scumbag like you call me a racist, I does feel like Einstein receiving a Nobel Prize.

Perhaps then, all political entities in parliament accept the current procedures are the means to conduct government business.

 To the contrary; the AFC is clear that the constitution creates and elected oligarchy. The PNC Is on record with an alternative power sharing model. Only the PPP like the present state of affairs.

TK is not dog donk. Nehru and Skeldan gat DAAG DUNK brain.

AFC and PNCR actions to secure the changes are yet to be seen.

and jagan fight 28yrs to change this same constitution now nothing is wrong with it devils can come in different colours

 They are surely shaking the foundation by highlighting the legislative authority of parliament. Obviously, parties can craft a vision but the people has to understand and accept it because this is ultimately a communal effort. Now that we see the PPP asserting the legislature have no authority to constrain the president ( who is therefore by their definition a regent). Surely, and surely the constitution will be changed.

But when will the constitution be changed?

 

Perhaps, similar from 1964 to 1992, when the PNCR got rid of the UF - in this case it will be the AFC - eventually "gained about 75% of the votes", and then the PNCR will enhance the laws to their benefits rather than to serve the interests of the people.

How so is it "unfair".  You sound like Bhenizar Bhutto, if I win, I'll accept it as fair, if I lose, it must have been rigged.

 

Now tell me, you say it's free, but unfair, how so?

HEHEHE

memo to the dribbling half wits and the grinning stupid . . . "free" and "fair" are not the same thing

 

a good starting point, no?

Soa tell abie stupit ******s, wah free and wah fair.  Abie luv to hear...over!!

ok, but before i start . . . let's stipulate that u are a PPP arsehole, and that "free" and "fair" are different, arite?

Let TK answer the question, who are you, his arse washer?  Alyuh scream and pound alyuh chest till you tunn blue, the international community has recognized it as free and fair, and that's what matters, not alyuh two-bit intellectual interpretation.

why should TK be responding to the stupid challenge u posed to ME, you moron . . . remember?

Jackass, Free and Fair were the terms of TK, you just piggy-back.

u playing "stupit" now naa . . . leh me lead u by de hand riiite here:

 

[Baseman to Redux] "Soa tell abie stupit ******s, wah free and wah fair.  Abie luv to hear...over!!"

 

"over" to U

DG only knows to cut and paste...no substance

Redux, TK, Ah stupid yuy stupid suh. Rass man Abee Canecutta dem know what the World said bout Abee Election. Abee bring Experts from all ova deh World  and dem look at all dem things and so and den come to a conclusion. You had yuh head stack in yuh Kakahole during the Election, so obviously you will have a different conclusion. I hope you washed your head.

This question is answered in my SN column tomorrow. 

The Israelis are sitting back comfortably in Tela Viv watching how Arabs are decimating Arabs.