Once accountability is allowed, those rags to riches stories will vanish from the lives of PPP officials

Feb 10, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor, 
The PPP and its minority government have been accused of and are in fact demonstrably guilty of violating our constitution. From their continuing refusal to implement the Public Procurement Commission and Freedom of Information Law to their refusal to impartially and transparently grant radio licenses or allow Guyanese TV broadcasters wider access to audiences across our country, this party and its government continue to show a wanton disregard for the Guyanese people and their natural rights that are protected in our constitution. It’s as if they have forgotten that government is nothing more than a voluntary arrangement among citizens, and that this arrangement can be abrogated at any time. Yes, when governments choose to ignore the constitutionalized natural rights of citizens, it’s logical for citizens to conclude that it is pure fantasy to continue to regard the constitutionalized legitimacy of governments. After all, no right-thinking person will ever accept the constitutional legitimacy of any government that routinely disregards the constitutional rights of any citizen.
Given its checkered past in our country, I find the PPP’s behaviour to be rather bewildering. It’s as if it and its minority government have learned nothing redemptive from the instructive events of 1953 or the retributive loss of power for 28 years until 1992. However, my observations and reading of history have convinced me that politicians and governments are the most likely to repeat the past because they self-servingly ignore it. So the PPP and its minority government have decided that they will act as they please, seemingly oblivious to the reality that other citizens will react as they please. In fact, the reaction is underway. And it reaches across our acrimonious racial divide.
It is clear that the PPP’s backward-looking and dictatorial governance has been premised on the misguided notion that the Indo-Guyanese vote against the PNC is in fact a vote of support for the PPP, which can then govern in much the same way it condemned the PNC for governing. But if the AFC’s success hasn’t awakened the PPP from its stupor, the current reaction will. And once awakened, the PPP would do well to seek the sage writings and sage minds of the past rather than pursue selfish interests. One of those sages is Frederick Douglass, a great 19th century African-American who escaped from slavery and later became a social reformer, writer, and orator. Douglass said and wrote lots of things that are appropriate to the circumstances we are faced with in Guyana. He reminded those who love to exercise dictatorial power that “…The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”  And to those who must struggle for their rights, he said: “ If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.”
The people of Linden and Region 10, along with Indo-Guyanese during the 2011 elections, have plowed up the ground with their bandwagon, and those interested in justice and constitutional rule must jump on. For as Douglass wisely observed, “ Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both….” So far in Guyana, we have been contented to respond with words during marches and during street protests, even though the security forces have chosen to confront us with blows. But we must not be dissuaded by the shooting of protesters. We must continue to rebel against the government’s disregard of and for our rights. Douglass said that ”The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.”
We must keep the faith and stay united across racial lines in this fight against corruption and the dictatorship that is necessary to protect it. The PPP and its minority government are afraid of establishing a Public Procurement Commission, implementing the Freedom of Information Law, and allowing unfettered and wide access to radio because doing so would crush corruption by bringing transparency and accountability to government. Once transparency and accountability are allowed in government, then those rags to riches, cottage to mansions, and used car to expensive SUV stories will vanish from the lives of PPP officials and their cohorts. We as a people will then be able to get value for money on contracts; our elderly will be able to get higher pensions; and the VAT burden will be reduced. It wouldn’t be easy, but Douglass reminds us that “ People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.”
And he reminded dictators and others who frusrate the expectations and aspirations of citizens that “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
Lest what I have written be misconstrued, I declare that my writings or the quotes herein aren’t intended as veiled or unveiled threats against anyone. They only speak the truth about human nature as concerned citizens stand against the dictatorship, unconstitutional rule, and putrid hypocrisy of the minority PPP government.
Lionel Lowe

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