The PPP prefers diplomatic blacklisting to holding Local Government Elections

Dear Editor, The results of the 2011 elections indicate that Guyanese democracy should have evolved by now,  yet one finds that the Minister of Finance has the audacity to illegally spend some $4.5 billion without Parliamentary approval. This is indeed a major step backward but Mr. Carl Greenidge and the majority opposition have been giving the PPP its way for too long.  In response, the PPP cabal has not only taken the majority strength of the opposition for granted but it has totally disrespected both APNU and the AFC in and outside Parliament. In 2013, the Minister of Finance spent billions of dollars that were not authorized by Parliament and the majority opposition did nothing but hold press conferences. In 2012, the combined opposition sanctioned Minister Rohee but instead of asking Rohee to resign, the president bequeathed more powers to him. The majority opposition is very weak and is in total confusion on a number of issues. It has not been able to hold the PPP regime accountable not assenting to the Bills passed by Parliament, for not holding Local Government Elections, for  giving away the airwaves to friends and family members, for failure to disclose the names of the investors for the Marriott Hotel until late, for allowing the head of NICIL to give away Guyana’s prime land to China Railway, and for not honoring the agreement signed in 2012 to grant a TV station to the people of Linden. These blatant violations of the use of raw power by this corrupt regime continue everyday and yet all the opposition does is to hold press conferences. After some three years, we had expected the maturing of the Guyanese democracy where people who lost the majority power would have summoned the tripartite committee to iron out all the major issues in the running of the country in an environment of molding a nation before it is taken to Parliament.  What we have instead is a schoolyard bully in the form of the PPP cabal who continues to use trickery, deception and propaganda on Mr. Granger and the entire opposition to score cheap political points and win the battle. The news for the school yard bullies is so bad that after losing over 15,000 votes in Berbice to the AFC in 2011, the reality is if any local government elections are held the results will be worst for them.  They are full aware that they will get a sound trashing from the people in Towns like Corriverton and Rose Hall and NDC’s like Whim /Lancaster and several others which abandoned them for the AFC. This is the primary reason why they will not call local government elections. The news from the ground on the Essequibo Coast is that the people are also quickly catching up with this trend of abandoning the PPP.  The only bright spot for the PPP remains West Demerara where the regime has unfairly used the housing programme to consolidate the PPP support base in that Region. So we want to forewarn the people, do not expect any elections in Guyana before 2016. The PPP is prepared to accept diplomatic blacklisting in exchange for not holding local government elections since the electoral humiliation will be enough to even cause them to lose the plurality. Asquith Rose and Harish Singh