The President should just call the elections now

Aug 14, 2014 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
In Guyana and elsewhere, good leadership comes down to moral courage and personal integrity. When faced with dilemmas in terms of determining what is the proper thing to do; those two characteristics are the most influential.
The ruling cabal in Guyana lacks moral leadership as they inevitably choose the cover-up route to hide their corrupt practices and secret back room deals in which “kickbacks” have become the norm in society. They have never believed in democratic principles or else they would have called the Local Government elections a long time ago.
So instead of telling the opposition to “put up or shut up,” the Minister of Home Affairs should tell his boss to call the Local Government Elections or he (the Minister) should shut up. He should focus his efforts and time to crime fighting which has escalated ten-fold under him. In any other country, he would have been fired a long time ago, but this corrupt regime would rather promote such comrades.
They would not even admit that corruption is taking place on a massive scale and that their urgent task is to fix it as they promised in the last election. They have not and will never accept truth as a feasible way forward, because their primary concern is to use the state resources to enrich themselves, relatives and friends. They will promote their interests and those of their relatives and friends and not the interest of the people, not even their own supporters.
The Minister of Home Affairs has refused to accept the fact that he has failed miserably to solve the escalating crime rate that has wreaked and continues to wreak havoc on the lives of innocent Guyanese. Instead, he has blamed APNU for the crime wave, as he is more engaged as the General Secretary of the PPP than as the Minister of Home Affairs.
This is a blatant misuse of the taxpayers’ money. His concocted attempts to hide his failure to deal with the crime issue are not working. Everyone knows that he is devoid of ideas, thus leaving the people to fend for themselves at the mercy of the criminals. Establishing the SWAT team and having the DEA in Guyana will not solve crime unless the Police Force operates as an independent entity. But some police officers are at odds with Rohee’s micro-management of the Force and have secretly dubbed it the PPP Force because they are told what to do.
This regime continues to show total disrespect for the people and contempt for the Constitution by not having Local Government elections. This was highlighted by the former U.S. Ambassador who said that Mr. Ramotar only cites the Constitution when it benefits him. Only someone like Rohee would say that the people are not in the mood for local government elections. If he has the skills to know the mood of the people, then he should have known that they want him to be fired. And for the PPP to say that GECOM is not ready for local government elections is blatantly false. The Chairman of GECOM has openly stated that they are ready for the elections. So the PPP should stop bluffing and call the elections ahead of the no-confidence vote.
The PPP is the most hypocritical political party to have ever governed Guyana. We want the people to know that during the 1970s, the PPP criticized the PNC for giving US$50,000 a year to help black freedom fighters to fight apartheid in South Africa, but at Mandela’s death, a delegation secretly rushed to his funeral without being invited by the South African government.
Paying tribute to Mandela’s marvellous life exposes their hypocrisy. It was Roger Luncheon who testified under oath that Afro-Guyanese are not qualified to represent this country overseas as ambassadors. This regime does not have an embassy in any of the 54 countries in Africa either.
Therefore, we say to the hypocrites at Freedom House they should not only praise Mandela in death or raise their voices in benediction, but they should reflect deeply on the qualities that radiated from this true and great leader and emulate them in Guyana. This would go a long way in uniting the two major races. But they will not even attempt to do anything remotely close to what Mandela did in unifying Guyanese because it is in their best interest to  “divide and rule” the people.
Moral leaders do not exist within the cabal because if they do, they will not stand idly by and watch the city of Georgetown decay and UG and the education system crumble under their rule. Moral leaders will not allow the voices of decency within the country to be drowned out by the hectoring tones of self-serving Stalinist dictators who victimize their opponents and marginalize a certain ethnic group by denying them access to jobs.
Moral leaders will not use the state resources to enrich themselves, relatives and friends. Moral leaders will not abandon the poor and the working class and allow places like Plastic City to exist in a country with an abundance of wealth.  Moral leaders will have the wisdom to discern that even if in the short-term the outcome of a principled decision might seem unpleasant, the ultimate goal is the preservation of integrity and public trust. Moral leaders will know that there comes a time when a parting of ways with corrupt officials might be the best solution, if the ethos of government is to be preserved and respected by the people.
One of the unfortunate aspects of allowing corrupt hands to grope away at the institution of government is its insidious effect. Too often, many in the ruling oligarchy have looked away, excused, and accept as normal, behavior that is corrupt, grossly immoral and downright unacceptable.  This not only weakens the institutions of government, but also reflects very poorly on moral leadership.
And if as leader, the President finds himself wondering what the right thing is; it wouldn’t hurt to ask what moral leaders would do. They would stop the pussyfooting and just call the elections now.
Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

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