The convenience of covenant politics

Jun 09, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

No sooner had the PNC announced that it was concerned with what is going on in Barbados, President Jagdeo seized the opportunity to explore the possibility of meeting with the opposition on the matter.
This makes it the seventh time in the past two years that Mr. Jagdeo has expressed a desire to talk to either the PNC or the combined opposition.
The first occasion can be dated to the gruesome killings in Lusignan and Bartica.
There were two meetings but the contents evaporated into thin air. Promises made during the confabulation were not kept. For example, there is still no Human Rights Commission (HRC). The birth of the HRC will have to wait for a new Head of State.

There are two dangers to Mr. Jagdeo’s power base with the commissioning of the HRC. The Chairman, if not from the PPP ranks, could end up being a second Ian Chang. It is obvious that the government felt happy to have Mr. Chang act as Chief Justice. But it backfired.
Mr. Chang appears as a dispenser of justice, who will not take “school boy instructions” from banana republic oligarchs.
So the search for a sycophantic chairman will have to be assigned stupendous effort. It is doubtful that the opposition will accept a chairman whose politics is close to the ruling party. The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) comes to mind.
This writer will never, I repeat, never take a complaint to the ERC. It is my opinion that the chairman is not the person for that job; he appears partisan to the government.
The other danger is that given the nature and make-up of the HRC, the government’s illegal decisions will not survive the HRC deliberations.

Take Ingrid Griffith. She acted as Trade Commissioner in the GRA structure for two years but was by-passed. She is currently acting in that capacity again, but will be assigned to the Communications Department of the GRA next month. A case like this would have found its way to the HRC if it had existed.
The second episode of covenant politics was over the EPA. Mr. Jagdeo arranged two hours, yes I repeat, two hours of consultations with Guyanese stakeholders at the Convention Centre ( I live next to that place and hundreds of bulbs are burning there every night; can’t they take them off and save some fuel at GPL?). Winston Murray and Clive Thomas got up and supported the President’s position on the EPA.
Thirdly, when the new sugar factory at Skeldon was having start-up problems, Mr. Jagdeo was reported in the press as saying, opposition and Government have to come together to save sugar.
Fourthly , Mr. Jagdeo suggested Mainstay Lake as the venue for a retreat with the Guyanese media on climate change.

This writer suggested to the publisher of this newspaper, that Mr. Jagdeo be written to accepting this paper’s participation, but we as a newspaper would like the vexed item of radio monopoly to be put on the agenda. My contention is that at the forum, the media should demand that the radio monopoly be brought to an end.
No media house warmed up to the President on the Mainstay Lake idea. I haven’t seen the thought expressed by Mr. Jagdeo since then.
One of the things that will be interesting to see if the Mainstay Lake media thing with the Head of State does become a reality, is if Capitol News would send Gordon Moseley.
The fifth time was when Mr. Trotman of the AFC was consulted by the President on the Summit of the Americas. Mr. Trotman almost suffered political apoplexy, because when Mr. Jagdeo returned from Trinidad, he ignored Mr. Trotman’s already composed Freedom of Information Act, and told the media that the Government will draft its own. Sixthly, there will now be a nation-wide consultation on climate change.

It does not look like Winston Murray will go. He suffered a monarchial beheading for treason by his party, for his failure to recognize the essence of Mr. Jagdeo’s realpolitik game at the EPA consultation last September.
Clive Thomas too will be missing, based on his rediscovery of his politics since he endorsed Mr. Jagdeo’s realpolitk at the EPA meeting.
Finally, Mr. Jagdeo wants to talk to the PNC on what is happening in Barbados with the Guyanese over there. So there you have it – seven times.
There is no response from Mr. Jagdeo on the plethora of governance issues the opposition raises every single day. It is always a request to talk about what the President wants to talk about. This will be Mr. Jagdeo’s style until he leaves office.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News