The politics of the opposition
Political opposition parties are stuck in one gear. They all refuse to accept the good that the other party is doing, but they are fast to mount protests, even if those protests are for the wrong reason. I remember the then President Donald Ramotar complaining about the non-cooperation of his opposition. He would often say that they refused his invitation for dialogue.
Donald Ramotar is no longer in office, but the situation remains the same. His party is refusing to cooperate with the government. General Secretary Clement Rohee has been saying as much. He refuses to acknowledge that in cases where the government is doing the same things that his government did, his reaction has been akin to the adage, “Do as I say and not as I do.”
A few years ago, when his government was in the opposition and the late Cheddi Jagan was at the helm, there was an issue with the then Vice President Robert Corbin. The din for his resignation was so loud that even people overseas heard it. The campaign was intense. And Corbin resigned.
Fast forward to today. Carvil Duncan is before the courts for a perceived indiscretion. Duncan is head of the Public Service Commission and as a result, a member of the Police Service Commission and the Judicial Service Commission. He has a say in the affairs of senior police officers and magistrates and judges.
I cannot see it being ethical to have this man appear before a magistrate whose fate rests in his hands, so the call was for him to resign until his matter is resolved. People in other societies have resigned for less. No one likes his name to be smeared.
There was the case of Justice Rabi Sukul who was sitting in the Guyana Court of Appeal. A British court found him implicit in a wrongdoing. Immediately Justice Sukul gave up his position on the Guyana Court of Appeal and went to England to clear his name. He has done so, but he has not indicated an interest to return to serve in the local courts.
Kellawan Lall was implicated in raucous behaviour outside a rural bar. He reportedly discharged his firearm, and all because of some scrap over a woman. The matter hit the news media, but such was his political position that the investigation was lukewarm.
The then President Bharrat Jagdeo set about to shield him and later, under intense pressure, shipped him off to a diplomatic posting. But this was only done after the very Kellawan Lall was embroiled in another incident that left an officer of the court crippled. To this day the man has not received the necessary compensation from either his employer or the state.
In that incident Kellawan Lall claimed that he was not the driver; that his son was. Even if that was the case, his son was never prosecuted and President Jagdeo was happy with the status quo.
And so we return to Carvil Duncan. He is accused of taking some $984,000 from the public treasury without the requisite authorization. He is also accused of helping the then Deputy General Manager of Guyana Power and Light, Aeshwar Deonarine, of salting away some $28 million.
He is placed before the courts, but Jagdeo does not see the need for Duncan to resign. When President David Granger takes the necessary action under the constitution, Jagdeo and his People’s Progressive Party make a noise about dictatorship. They then go about making it an issue by refusing to sit in the Parliament when President David Granger addressed the forum.
I can understand a political party seeking to make its supporters see that it is an advocate, either for right or wrong. The party has to seek relevance and that I can understand. What I can’t understand is promoting illegality. How can a president act within the constitution and be a dictator? It is the same constitution that Jagdeo used.
There are other areas that cause me worry. I happen to move around the city and I am surprised at the vast improvement being done to the road surfaces, something that had not been done in the last two decades. That programme alone created a lot of employment. Many people are working, but the opposition keeps talking about the absence of jobs. I am tempted to ask whether jobs disappeared when the new government came into office. This government inherited the situation of a lack of jobs and is doing something about it.
These things are happening in less than two years, but such is the political noise that they pass unnoticed.
There is talk about crime. Of course there is crime in every society, but I can see a vast reduction in the violent crimes. Many are domestic in nature, something that a government cannot control but the opposition, which faced the same situation and worse, is complaining.
Clement Rohee said to me that criticising is the job of the opposition; that it is not his job or that of his party to say anything good about the government. I can live with that. What I can’t live with are the comments that business is bad.
People say that if they go into a store and they see something when they don’t have money, when they go back that thing is gone. People are shopping. If that was not the case, why are these businesses still in operation?
I had cause to direct attention to the Chinese-run businesses which are booming. The opposition now complains that the government has closed the criminal loopholes. It is saying that the government should allow corruption so that people can thrive.
If that is to be the recipe as proposed by the opposition, I want none of it. But who am I to talk. The government has its own public relations people who must earn their keep.
