Leadership is about being principled and doing the right things

Nov 02, 2008 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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By Sheila Holder

In my last article in this column I made the point that, unlike many persons in the top echelons of the PPP/C and to a lesser extent in the PNCR, none in the AFC leadership or, indeed, any of our parliamentarians, possess either landed immigrant status or a passport for any foreign country. This was not intended to be an idle boast; but to point out that the leadership of the AFC had as much to lose – or to gain – from whatever transpires in Guyana. It is, therefore, in our best interest to work for national reconciliation and a stable social and political environment that would lead to racial harmony, while fulfilling our people’s desire for economic empowerment.
Were President Jagdeo and his Government to deliver on these essentials, the leadership of the AFC would have no need to pursue political activities for the purpose of opposing, exposing and deposing them in the expectation of better governance and management of the affairs of this State.
Regrettably, neither he nor his colleagues have demonstrated a willingness to put country above party and self interests. Regrettably, the leaders of the PPP/C do not appear to understand that leadership is not about brinkmanship, vindictiveness or assigning favoured treatment to some, but rather about being principled and doing the right things like upholding the laws of Guyana.
As Head of State, President Jagdeo has a duty to be the standard bearer for the Constitution, which he has sworn to honour, uphold and preserve without fear or favour, affection or ill will, but has he?
One example that readily comes to mind and which has been given prominence in the press is his failure to uphold Article 170 of the Constitution that addresses the process by which legislation is enacted. Article 170 (2 & 3) stipulates that when a Bill is presented to the President for assent he shall signify whether he assents or withholds his assent; in which case the bill is sent back to the National Assembly for the members to reconsider it. Thereafter, he is required to return the bill to the Speaker within 21 days of the date when it was presented to him with a message stating his reasons for not giving his assent.
Having failed to do so, President Jagdeo has actually opened himself to possible impeachment proceedings, but has no fear of such a likelihood since greater loyalty for party than for the Constitution or, indeed, for the Guyanese people is the operating paradigm among PPP/C parliamentarians.
Furthermore, within the National Assembly there are several members who are themselves in breach of Article 155 (1)(a) of the Constitution, and are, therefore, disqualified for election as members of the National Assembly having sworn allegiance to a foreign state.
It is this cavalier attitude to the Constitution, the highest law of this land, which is being displayed by this administration that is cause for serious national concern; and what has led the AFC’s parliamentary team to take the signal action of boycotting the sitting of the National Assembly on Thursday October 30, 2008. In this case, it was the contempt the PPP/C Government displayed for the Parliamentary Standing Orders (SO) and the agreements reached with the parliamentary opposition. In the opinion of the AFC, such conduct could have destructive consequences for Guyana’s fledgling parliamentary democracy.
The Parliamentary (SO) rules state in No. 24 (2) that: ‘Subject to the provisions of these Standing Orders, Government Business shall have precedence on every day except Wednesdays when Private Members’ (that is, opposition) Business shall have precedence’. Also, by agreement reached in December 2007 in the Parliamentary Management Committee (PMC), it was agreed that: ‘Every fourth sitting of the National Assembly will be held on a Wednesday’.
By this agreement, therefore, the fourth sitting of the National Assembly, following the resumption after the parliamentary recess, should have been held on Wednesday 29th October, 2008. Yet, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, whom the Speaker assured me he would remind about this PMC agreement, went ahead and ordered a sitting for Thursday 30th October, 2008.
The fact that I had written the Speaker a week earlier requesting that my Motion (dealing with the violation of the rights of the people of Linden to access the televised media other than the State-owned television) be assigned for Wednesday 29th October, 2008 made no difference to the PM, the PPP/C Chief Whip & President Jagdeo’s Governance Advisor, thereby knowingly flouting the SO rules and the PMC agreement.
As leader of the National Assembly, it is the PM and his Government who decide on when the National Assembly meets, not the Opposition. It is these rules that stipulate, at the minimum, that everyday Government’s business gets precedence except once a month, on Wednesdays, when Opposition business is entitled to be dealt with first. Yet, instead of assigning Member, Aubrey Norton’s, Torture Motion to a Wednesday sitting, it was put last on the Government’s agenda that saw the debate extending past midnight on Monday October 27, 2008.
In our opinion, this is because Government is attempting to devalue the contributions of the minority parties in the National Assembly. Such tactics have already been institutionalized in the State media as experienced by the Linden community, the AFC during the last elections and others. By now it should also have been observed that the State media never airs any parliamentary presentations by AFC Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, MP and the evidence is mounting that all AFC parliamentarians are being relegated similar treatment.
The AFC wants its growing membership and the public to know that these attempts will not deter the party from its role as a parliamentary party committed to oppose, expose and depose this Administration that has failed to govern with integrity, transparency and accountability. The words of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi come to mind when he was engaged in fighting the British Empire: “In the times to come the people will not judge us by the creed we profess, or the label we wear, or the slogans we shout, but by our work, industry, sacrifice, honesty and purity of character.”

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