More attention ought to be paid to the people’s business

Jul 29, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
As Dr Walter Rodney has taught us we must “discover ourselves in order to understand our historic mission in our own self-emancipation”.  In this regard we want to be on record as saluting Mr. Sharma Solomon, the Regional Chairman of Region 10, Ms. Vanessa Kissoon (MP), Mr. Nigel Hughes (the people’s Senior Counsel) and all the others on the front lines providing effective representation to the youth, poor and the powerless as they pursue their mission of “emancipating themselves from mental slavery” under this uncaring Jagdeo/Ramotar PPP Government. There are thousands both inside and outside of Guyana who are working beyond the call of duty in this struggle for working class freedom. There work will not go in vain. A Luta Continua!
That said, we remain deeply concerned, like thousands of other Guyanese, as to why the Parliament postponed the debate on the no confidence motion against Rohee.  We considered the slaying and wounding of peaceful protesters as well as the decade of mal-administration by the Jagdeo/Ramotar PPP regime as economic genocide against the working class. This is a very serious issue and we condemned the action of the combined parliamentary opposition as they joined with the PPP in postponing the debate.  What was the opposition thinking?
It is regrettable that the combined opposition could not have influenced three consecutive days of debate on this no confidence motion.  We are dealing with people’s lives and their survival and to delay the debate can be described as extremely unsympathetic to the cause of the people. When the question was asked as to who authorized such a long delay the responses we got was “The conduct of the debate is left to the Chief Whips”, who we understand comes from the PPP and APNU.  But when an APNU MP was asked what is the deal, the rhetorical answer was ”Is yuh Speakah, like he wan fuh go home an sleep, but we bin plan fuh guh troo with the debate….”  So we were left with the choice of doing the research in order to get to the truth on how the decision to hold a session of Parliament is made.
According to the Standing Order of the Parliament, Chapter II Paragraph (2), “If, during an adjournment of the Assembly, it is represented to the Speaker by the Government, or the Speaker is of the opinion, that the public interest requires that the Assembly should meet on a day earlier than that to which it stands adjourned, the Speaker may give notice accordingly and the Assembly shall meet at the time stated in such notice.”
The rules are clear; the instrument of authority over the sitting of Parliament resides in the Leadership of the National Assembly. So who is playing to the PPP tune of helping the filibustering and delaying of this no-confidence motion?
Thousands of Guyanese all over the world are putting their shoulder to this struggle only to have a few selected elites abuse their position in the interest of the continuation of the naked opportunism and exploitation of the poor and the working class by the PPP.  Only on Thursday night the people in New York held a candle light vigil in Richmond Hill, Queens (a former PPP stronghold) to show solidarity with the people in Linden.  From the conversations we had with the over 20 persons and the scores of “thumb-up” pedestrians, it is obvious that a growing number of people are prepared to stand with the working class in their struggle with the hope that they would soon be politically, economically and socially free from the shackles of the corrupt PPP regime.
Thus what is happening in Parliament is wrong. The revolutionaries know who is aiding and abetting the oppressors and when freedom reign in the land, the people will remember the petty bourgeois class that facilitated this oppression.
As Guyanese, we demand greater transparency, consistency and timeliness in the functions of Parliament. To support this demand we provide the following evidence to justify our position.   The 10th Parliament has been constituted for 120 working days as at July 27th but sat for ONLY 26 of those opportunity days and if you discount the Budget debate; the Assembly sat for 12 days.  That is 10% of the opportunity days and even if we include the budget debate it is 22%.  So what happens on 78% of the opportunity days?
Is the national Assembly a Country Club or a Recreational Vocation?
The people have voted for strong, consistent and transparent leadership in the National Assembly but they continue to be let them down at this juncture of our history when the window of opportunity to make tangible changes in the way we govern ourselves is almost being cast aside. Based on our dialogue with others, more and more people are arriving at the conclusion that there are clear acts of opportunism and abuse in the operation of the 10th Parliament since the people’s agenda is being neglected at the expense of personal agendas.
Such narrow and partisan actions are expected from the PPP, but not from APNU or the AFC. Very soon, opportunities will present themselves for freedom loving people to work together regardless of race, class, gender, political persuasion, religion or age to chart a new course for the nation.  Timid and immature leaders who relish in the thought of running to the Office of the President at all hour for all kinds of reasons will have to make way for the courageous and mature politicians like Moses V. Nagamootoo, Nigel Hughes who will be joined by the youths of Guyana like Gerhard Ramsaroop, Vanessa Kissoon and Solomon Sharma and others of their mindset. This people’s struggle will not wait for no one and their politics of back room deals; neither from the AFC nor APNU.  The people will support and move along with those who are grounded solidly and ideologically with them. All others will be excluded.
In this new political dispensation, the people demand that the opposition used Parliament to correct the wrongs, abuses and oppression imposed on them by the wicked, dishonest and unkind Jagdeo/Ramotar PPP regime. This is a mandate that must be implemented by the majority Parliamentary opposition. Failing to deliver is tantamount to failing the youth, the poor and the working class.  And there are political consequences for such political mistakes at the altar of self-service as practiced by some politicians in the majority opposition. As Linden and the sugar belt is revealing, the people will not just roll over and take this oppression lightly for long just because a politician says so.  No way, people will start to chart their own destiny outside of the traditional political mindset and should we give them wrong when the alternative dominated by self-serving politicians.
Shame on those who use the instrument of authority vested in them by the electorate to treat the people’s issues with such insensitivity. This is not a game; people’s lives and survival are at stake. Today is Linden, tomorrow it can be Berbice!
Dr Asquith Rose and Sasenarine Singh

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