PM Gonsalves should know each country’s political reality before supporting an end to term limits

Jul 12, 2009 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Was the Guyana Chronicle sending a message to its limited audience when its lead news article on July 8 read, “Gonsalves backs removing term limits for CARICOM leaders?”
In the article, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Mr. Ralph Gonsalves, reportedly said that because there is a shortage of quality leadership in the region, there should be an end to artificial term limits for heads of government.
But even before he shared his opinion, President Bharrat Jagdeo was on record saying he will not seek a third term. So, again, what’s the Chronicle’s motivation here?
What PM Gonsalves said, on the surface, may make sense, given that individual CARICOM countries do not have a vast reserve of political leaders waiting in the wings who are duly qualified, appropriately trained and reasonably experienced enough to lead a nation, but once we start delving deeply we will see why his reasoning is flawed and should not be seen as worthy of consideration across the board in the region.
First, I disagree with PM Gonsalves’ support for abolishing term limits by saying, “We don’t have to imitate everything the Americans do.”

The truth is, the introduction of term limits in the Caribbean, including Guyana, was not based merely on the American presidential system, but on the disconcerting perception in the region that in the post-colonial era we have seen the growth of career politicians whose long stay in politics have not only discouraged many young political aspirants with fresh, independent thinking, but have also turned such tenured politicians into human fixtures in government institutions who tend to create an environment conducive for corruption, nepotism, cronyism and authoritarianism.
In Guyana’s case, for example, the biggest post-colonial concern has been the penchant for the head of government to behave like an authoritarian, a la Forbes Burnham and Bharrat Jagdeo, thanks to a 1980 Constitution that protects the President.
The President cannot be sued or indicted while in office or after he demits office for any action he takes as President while in office and this seems to allow him to abuse his authority as President by making all sorts of decisions that could otherwise be challenged in a court of law.
But while Burnham was disposed to being authoritarian he was smart enough to always appear to abide by the law; Jagdeo, however, doesn’t even pretend to respect the law.

His authoritarianism allows him to assume almost any government post at will and to make all sorts of public pronouncements and decisions, even on legal and criminal matters outside his official purview.
Second, before PM Gonsalves can talk about abolishing term limits in CARICOM countries, he should apprise himself of every CARICOM country’s political reality, and given Guyana’s reality not all Guyanese share his misguided call for an end to term limits.
He needs to be told that in Guyana the two major races have been deliberately divided along ethnic lines because of the politics of the PPP and PNC, so that whichever party gets in office tends to govern as though only its agenda matters and, in the process, neither party is capable of uniting the races behind government on national issues.
He needs to know about the corruption, nepotism and cronyism in Guyana’s government, the unaccountability of hundreds of millions of dollars based on the Auditor General’s reports, the government’s refusal/failure to break its monopoly on radio, the failure by the President to sign into law dozens of bills passed by Parliament.

He needs to know that the people of Guyana recently lost US$34 million because of the Jagdeo administration’s failure to ensure its Insurance Commissioner did her job applying punitive measures in Section 39 of the Insurance Act when CLICO (GY) violated Section 55 of said Insurance Act and invested over 15% of its funds overseas.
He needs to know Guyana also had what is probably the worst period of murders (over 200 by one account) during the Jagdeo rule, featuring demented criminal elements, on the one hand, and a
convicted drug baron and phantom killers, on the other hand, and rather than forming a commission to get to the bottom of this national horror, all the government did was accuse the PNC of involvement with the criminal elements, while the Joint Services’ killing out of such criminals was seen as official closure to the era of state-sanctioned lawlessness.
There was not even a probe into the activities of the convicted drug baron who now sits in a US prison awaiting sentencing.

PM Gonsalves needs to be told that despite its rich natural resources Guyana continues to struggle economically after 28 years under the PNC and 17 years under the PPP.
Yes, we have more natural resources than St. Vincent and the Grenadines and OECS countries combined, yet we keep hemorrhaging our most precious resource – people – to other CARICOM countries.
The PPP are a mere 11 years away from matching the PNC’s 28 years in power and, from all appearances, Guyana’s economy is moving at a tortoise’s pace when it should be making rabbit leaps given its potential.
Now, how can anyone in their right mind defend an extended term in office for a leader on whose watch all the foregoing transpired?
If PM Gonsalves seriously believes the region is suffering from a lack of quality leadership, hence the need to end term limits, then based on the above-stated facts reflective of Guyana’s political reality in the last decade alone, he’d readily conclude Guyana is indeed suffering from a lack of quality leadership and, therefore, needs to keep term limits in place.

Otherwise I can only hope his call is not based on sympathy for so-called leftist governments, such as Guyana’s and that of the ousted left-leaning Honduran President’s, just so that they can remain in power indefinitely and help revive socialism regionally and globally.
Because not all parties in government that say they are socialist or communist and care about the working class really care; most seem to care more about using ideology to pursue their partisan agendas that include ensuring they become entrenched in power indefinitely by tinkering with constitutions, and controlling legislatures, judiciaries and the military. It’s all about a ruling class lording it over the working class.
Finally, PM Gonsalves did make a valid point when he said that if the populace clamours for an end to term limits that this should be honoured.

The problem with term limits in Guyana is that the issue was never put to the people via a referendum but decided on by politicians in Parliament, and because the people know any future amendments will be done exclusively by Parliament, most likely between the PPP and PNC, there is little public interest in term limits; it is completely out of the people’s hands.
Unless the PPP and PNC hijack Parliament and abolish term limits thus leading to some form of shared governance, then come 2011the people have to make that decisive change and retake their government from the PPP and PNC.
Fortunately, many Guyanese are waking up to the realisation that PPP-PNC ethnic based politics have not delivered unity and progress so they are quietly hoping for a sea change; but to turn hope to reality, they have to make it happen in 2011.
Emile Mervin,

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