We need to return to 1960s Parliamentary System

Jan 14, 2014 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Former PPP stalwart Lionel Peters has taken on former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran criticizing him for making reference to Ramjattan’s “haul your a..” comment and for referring to the AFC as a 10% party.
Readers should know that few contributed as much as Lio, as we called him, did in the liberation struggle against the dictatorship and he is among a few who has a repository of knowledge about the ground struggle in Guyana for free and fair elections. I used to see him all over the Corentyne and Demerara when I visited regularly during the 1980s and 1990s, and he never turned down to help me in my research, though I never found ways to repay him or thank him enough.
Many noted that he was never given his “fair due” for his sufferings at the hands of thugs of the PNC dictatorship and frequent lock ups for asserting his rights or fighting on behalf of the oppressed. Others of lesser ilk were promoted way ahead of him.
I think Lio was too harsh on the former Speaker. For some inexplicable reason, Lio has consistently slammed Ramkarran who, like several of us, also made huge sacrifices during the struggle to restore democracy to our homeland. There could be something personal that I am not familiar with.
I do think Lio is putting too much into the 10% commentary and at any rate the comment is not meant to belittle Khemraj’s achievement at the November 2011 polls or even his contributions to the pro-democracy struggle.
As Lio correctly stated, “Ralph is an amicable figure”. He does not step on political toes or seek to derogate people and he is not demeaning an achievement of 10% of popular votes — after all, the 10%, mostly coming from the traditional PPP base, cost the ruling party its majority. However, as Ralph suggests, the AFC’s strength must be taken into context of what has been happening over the last two years. APNU (PNC) has been growing. The AFC would be fooling itself if it thinks it has not been losing support. People who voted AFC told me they are angry with some of its positions and how it voted on certain bills and the cutting of the budget. Also, the AFC has been losing ground because of mistakes it made in Agricola and Linden.
Guyana needs serious political reforms that if implemented will address several of the problems people comment on daily. We need a truly democratic constitution that empowers people and that shifts power away from politicians and the Georgetown establishment. Both Lio and I consistently oppose the current fraudulent constitution.
I urge Lio to impress upon my friends Khemraj, Moses Nagamootoo, etc. to introduce a bill to replace the Burnham constitution with the early 1960s democratic constitution. Ramkarran called for a political system with the Prime Minister as head of government and a President as ceremonial head. Had that constitution been in effect, as it should have been, we would have had a coalition government in charge of the affairs today and probably none of the kind of problems with management or demands of power sharing, etc. In fact, all future governments would truly reflect the will of the people through coalitions among the parties (and by extension their ethnic groups). Alternatively, a bill could be introduced to allow people to choose in a vote which constitution they prefer – the Burnham one or the independence one imposed by the British. Unlike what Khemraj or Mo may think, going back to the British constitution is not endorsing or returning to imperialism. It is consolidating democracy that forces parties to the negotiation table to deal with the interests of the population rather than enriching themselves.
Vishnu Bisram

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