There is no room for petty governance

May 04, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,

I continue to be embarrassed, frustrated and disappointed with the actions of the President and government, particularly with their attitude in dealing with pertinent national issues. After 16 years of governing the nation one would think that, by now, the ruling party would recognise that the interest of the nation is paramount to its party’s “political game”. The “tit for tat”, “lass lick” kind of politics which, regrettably seems to be the basic political strategy of the ruling party and the President has come to project the administration as one which lacks the most basic standards of good governance, or responsible government.

The point is, that, almost every time there appears to an issue that demands swift and responsible action by the government and President, there is move by both to either dilute the importance of the issue or conjure up some remotely related issue to implicate the opposition party, refuse to act, and/or transfer blame.

Just to illustrate my point; in 2002-2003 with the unthinkable crime wave and ripe allegations of the existence of death squads, the PNCR called for an investigation into the numerous inexplicable killings, kidnappings and disappearances of young men.

In response the government rebuffed the call for investigation and argued that there should first be an investigation into happenings related to the aftermath of the 1997 elections. At the time, it was almost five years, since that election and the PPP/C which, was the government at the time of the 1997 elections refused to conduct an investigation into what transpired then, but was then advancing this call, for investigation, in order to counter the PNCR’s demand for investigation into the allegations that then Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, was managing a phantom squad, and the criminal activities of 2002-2003.

However, when the PNCR reiterated that it had no objection to the investigation of the aftermath of the 1997 elections, and would support same, the government then found another reason to refuse to order an investigation into the criminal activities in 2002-2003. It then, took the PNCR nights, and days of non-stop political agitation, both locally and internationally to, finally, bring about that investigation.

Now with the CLICO fiasco, the PNCR and several organisations have called on the government to launch an investigation into the company’s financial activities, the government responded with the President calling for an investigation into Globe Trust. The Globe Trust disaster took place more than five years ago, and again the PPP/C was the government of the day, so why they did not ensure an investigation was conducted.

I am not sure what the President was intimating when he brought up Globe Trust, but I would want to think that the PNCR would be the last organisation to disapprove of any Globe Trust investigation, primarily, since a sizeable percentage of those who suffered financial losses as a result of the Globe Trust collapse were the party’s supporters.

However, a more recent example of the PPP/C’s selfish politics is the situation with the Former Presidents (benefits and other facilities) Bill 2009.

It is clear, that, with the earlier passing of the “Bill to provide pension payments to Mrs. Hoyte” the government had its plans to bring the, controversial, Former President’s bill of 2009, in National Assembly and use its majority to pass it. It appears as though the “Mrs. Hoyte Bill” (not sure why so named) was being used as a platform for tabling the open-ended “former President’s bill”.

One just have to listen to the government speakers on the bill or read the Prime Minister’s ramblings in the SN letter section, in his letter captioned ” President’s Pensions bill is worthy of the support of all Guyanese who want to put their nation first”. In fact this bill in Mrs. Hoyte’s name needed not to be tabled since there was existing

provisions to take care of her pensions, provisions also referred to in Prime Minister Hinds’ letter, which identifies Section 3 of the Pensions Act of 2004 as the relevant Act. The point is, the pension payment to the spouse of Late President Hoyte should never have been an issue and it should not have caused The Leader of the PNCR, Mr. Corbin, and his party to pressure the government over the years to deal with this matter. But it is clear that the government had its plans.

These are just a few instances of where the government and the ruling party demonstrate to Guyanese that critical national issues and the interest of the people take back seat to the PPP/C’s political survival. They feel embolden enough to practice their repressive politics; since it appears that they label us, the people, as either, docile and not intelligent enough to decipher their vindictive tactics or decided that we, ourselves, are not interested in our own welfare.

This is a misnomer they will soon come to realise, may invite devastating consequences.

I urge us to continue to pay keen attention to these retarded, and selfish strategies, they do not serve in the best interest of the nation. The government needs to get serious and deal with issues as they arise, petty politics must be gotten rid of.

Lurlene Nestor