JOPP, EAB and mysterious shadows

Apr 13, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

One reason why I fell out with a majority of organizations and people in this country in my long career as a political activist and a media operative is because while I accept that life has mysteries, I do not see them in Guyana.
Trained as a historian and operating as a media practitioner, I believe my proclivity to explore curiosities are natural. My discoveries and subsequent publication (either by talking or writing about them) have not endeared me to countless people in this country.
Maybe I am naïve – Guyana is just like any other land in the world. But I will go on speaking out and making my inquiries and publishing my findings. I will continue to hunt down mysteries in my country.
In a long telephone conversation with the Parliamentarian from the Guyana Action Party, Everall Franklin, at noon last Monday, I asked him about one of those Guyanese mysteries. Who is the human being behind the shape of the joint opposition political parties (JOPP)? Who is arranging the talks? Who made up the list of parties to be invited? Who sent out invitations to a certain number of citizens to form a management committee to facilitate a quicker resolution?
Mr. Franklin knows that what he spoke to me about I was going to put in print. I told him so. I solicited his view on two issues. One was that I didn’t see anything fundamentally wrong (I stress the adverb, fundamentally) with the content of an interview Peter Ramsaroop gave to Capitol News to get him, Franklin, angry and in doing so he displayed old political culture that was unbecoming of him (more of that in a later column).
Secondly, why aren’t the people in JOPP consulting other Guyanese on whom they are selecting?
My point to Franklin is that we in the opposition and civil society keep hammering policy-makers in Government over recognition of the consulting principle but we do no better. I offered him the example of an incident between Mr. Miles Fitzpatrick and the Police Commissioner that took place many moons ago.
Mr. Fitzpatrick along with attorney Josephine Whitehead, formed Guyanese Against Crime (GAC) and sought a meeting with the then Commissioner of Police. They were turned down. The top cop said that he didn’t know the group and whether it had the right to speak on behalf of the Guyanese people.
I followed up with a column in support of the police decision. My argument was that GAC was not a representative body and I even attribute some level of dishonest thinking to the group. If you are going to form an anti-crime association how can you leave out the sociologists at UG who study crime and write papers on it as part of their professional work?
GAC was so contemptuous of the sociologists that they were not contacted. I should inform you that before I made that assertion I inquired from the Department of Sociology if its members were contacted. The answer was no
For a long time in this country, mysterious shadows speak on behalf of the Guyanese people without even a small endeavour to consult with the citizens of this land. We are a small population. That shouldn’t be an onerous task. Take the Elections Assistance Bureau. I had cause in the past to write two articles about the way it operates – just like the defunct GAC.
Who or what is the Elections Assistance Bureau (EAB)? How does its leadership come about? We hear about it during the election period. Then it dies. Then come election time, we hear from it again. And all the time it is the same faces we see. We don’t know how they got there but they speak on behalf of the Guyanese people; the usual mysterious shadows perambulating the avenues of Guyana. Stephen King should write his next novel about this country.
Last month a letter appeared from nowhere, carried in the Stabroek News and signed by Mr. David Yhann Jr., on behalf of the EAB. No doubt, the EAB will ask GECOM for accreditation to monitor the upcoming elections and will apply for a grant from the UNDP.
It will of course tell the Guyanese people that it is doing all that it is, for them. But how many of us know who the people in the EAB are? How many of our civil society groups, professional associations and academics would have been consulted?
I see that the Guyana Human Rights Association has just formed another body. The mysterious shadows are lengthening over the territory of this tragic land.

Latest News

JOPP, EAB and mysterious shadows

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

The wait is over, all roads lead to KMTC for their Grand Boxing Day...

Xhiya Hercules – flipping the script towards...

Road Warriors, Bent Street, Team Cruel &...

Deol maiden hundred outshines Matthews’ as...

Moraikobai village two days football competition...

BCB thanks cricket fraternity for strong support...

Features/Columnists

Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals!

Breaking the Chains of Poverty: A need for political will

Christmas – reality and possibility

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

JOPP, EAB and mysterious shadows

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]