The PNC stands on a moment of history

Aug 22, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

For the purpose of this essay, I am going to locate the main decision about saving the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project investment within the leadership of the PNC rather than APNU, because I believe if APNU is going to approve of it, I think the PNC leadership will be the crucial deciders.
Four major stakeholders want the investment to proceed. The AFC has made its decision. The Private Sector Commission’s position is known. The President at the time of writing may still be in touch with Opposition Leader, Granger. The US Embassy believes the investment should proceed. The PNC now has to decide whether the project is dead or it will join these other stakeholders and renegotiate so the project can proceed.
What follows here is my advice to the PNC leadership. It is impertinent of me to suggest how experienced Parliamentarians should conduct their political affairs, but I would like to offer my opinion. As soon as possible the PNC leadership (no doubt with APNU officials included) should seek two meetings respectively with the presidency and the US Embassy.
The PNC’s bottom line, which should be non-negotiable, is that it will vote for Amaila when Parliament convenes, albeit with some modifications but in return, the PNC is asking for a menu of measures that no decent human being living in or out of Guyana can denounce as unreasonable. It is to be expected that the presidency will not openly embrace all the items and all is well that ends well. One would expect serious bargaining and the PNC will not get all the things it puts on the table. That is life. That is reality and the PNC must know this.
First, there must be presidential approval for the financial and administrative independence of Parliament. This was a recommendation by Sir Paul Reeves years ago. It is incredible in any democratic system that the legislature, which is the ultimate receptacle of power, is subordinate to the government of the day, when one takes into consideration that governments are formed by political parties.
Secondly, GECOM should follow in the same direction. This is the body that decides who wins the government by the way it conducts the general elections. If it is not independent, then it can ignore the wishes of the electorate and do its own thing. Why should the agency responsible for the administration of general elections be funded by the government which consists of persons who are politicians that compete for power? The financial outlay of GECOM should not be for a Minister of Government to decide.
Thirdly, the President should immediately agree to resuscitate the Commission on constitutional reform. The 1980 Constitution, despite changes made to it ten years ago, is a thing of the past. It was constructed at a certain juncture in the immediate post-colonial period that no longer has relevance. Guyana’s history has evolved since 1980 in directions that have rendered many sections of the 1980 Constitution irrelevant.
Perhaps the most caricatured nuance of life in Guyana, which when compared to other nations in this hemisphere makes Guyana look silly, is that the party that lost the general elections governs Guyana in ways, shapes and modes that virtually make it the majority winner of the national elections. It is something that I believe has literally damaged the psyche of those voters who gave their ballots to the opposition.
Even in minor areas of governance you see the “majority” power of a ruling party that did not win a majority at the national elections. In Guyana, this is simply amazing. If anyone not familiar with Guyana comes to this country and sees the way the ruling party uses power, he/she would never believe that such a party did not win a majority in the general elections.
Fourthly, the PNC must insist to the US Embassy that the Procurement Commission is a constitutional body that must be made to function and that the Government is holding it up. How can any citizen eject an all-party body overlooking the way contracts are awarded? In what way is this process a flawed one? Shouldn’t we be happy with an all-inclusive Commission?
I could go on to cite changes to the University of Guyana Act and other institutions whose reform would allow for good governance, but space would not permit it. This then is my humble opinion. I recommend a PNC delegation meet with the US Embassy urgently and put forward its agenda for the preservation of the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project. The nation will then see who is patriotic and who is not.

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