The Private Sector Commission should cease attempting to do the PPP’s dirty work
Dear Editor, Mr. Ramesh Persaud, Chairman of the Guyana Private Sector Commission has proposed that as a condition to President Donald Ramotar revoking his order proroguing the Parliament, the Parliamentary opposition majority must first agree to delay passage of its no-confidence motion for one month after the resumption of the House. This modus vivendi, he posits, would facilitate dialogue between the government and opposition. This is a fatuous design. It resembles an idea that was airily floated to the opposition and summarily dismissed by the APNU and AFC. Dialogue about what? The place for national dialogue and debate on public policy and matters of national importance is the Parliament. President Ramotar arbitrarily suspended this very constitutionally entrenched forum for dialogue, without consulting the Speaker or opposition leaders, so as to prevent them from executing a mandate of the constitution. Did he not think of the necessity for dialogue before issuing his dictatorial decree, and piloting Guyana away from the path of a democratic society? Moreover, did Mr. Ramotar not think that dialogue was important when he rebuffed opposition demands for consultation on the budget; outrageous crime rate; proliferation of drug and weapons trafficking; the PPP’s refusal to hold local government elections; anti-money laundering bill and multiple pieces of legislation which the Parliament enacted but to which Mr. Ramotar has refused to assent? It was Mr. Ramator’s authoritarian act that killed all avenues and hopes of dialogue with the opposition. He abused his presidential powers, silenced the voices of the elected representatives of the people and walked the nation back from the democratic process – a process he and his retrograde PPP mendaciously claim they singularly returned to Guyana in 1992. Doesn’t the PSC get It? The Guyanese people are not idiots! They recognize the PSC gimmick to be the same putrid, recycled PPP proposal by Mr. Ramotar, which has now been reshuffled and wrapped in an ostentatious but nevertheless offensive PSC package. The opposition should return it to the sender with instant dispatch, with a postscript indicating that democracy has moved and is now homeless, and that the Private Sector Commission should cease attempting to do the PPP’s dirty bidding. Mr. Ramotar and his PPP government have no respect for the rule of law. They are serial violators of the constitution. They have raped the country and the treasury. They have governed Guyana as if it is their personal property. They have lost their legitimacy to govern. This crisis is of their-own making. The chickens have now come home to roost! It is not sufficient for Mr. Ramotar to announce “an intent” to call elections next year as he did Saturday night. He must dissolve the Parliament now and announce a date for general elections now. This is what the constitution requires; albeit that he and members of his government allegedly act like avaricious outlaws who have shredded the constitution. Rickord Burke