The nation is entitled to have both cake and bake!

Oct 05, 2014 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

President Donald Ramotar’s tactless remarks to his supporters at a town hall meeting in New York are deeply disturbing. Ramotar told the audience, assembled by the People’s Progressive Party’s Association of Concerned Guyanese, “Well, my mother used to say you can’t have it in cake and have it in bake; you can’t have it both ways, you have to make up your mind what you want.”
Ramotar, amidst friends, must have felt that he had licence to be funny by retelling an old Creole proverb. There really was nothing to laugh about remarks which were nothing less than a callous and cynical breach of the Constitution.
Ramotar was speaking about the demands by A Partnership for National Unity that he should announce a date for local government elections which were last held twenty years ago in 1994. The National Assembly passed a bill since February 2014 mandating that the elections be held by 1st August 2014. He has not done so. There was nothing funny there.
The Alliance For Change had also proposed a motion expressing no-confidence in the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration. Should that motion be approved by the National Assembly, the administration will be forced to resign. There was nothing funny there either.
The President’s dilatoriness in issuing instructions to hold local government elections is deeply disturbing. These elections would allow the Guyanese people to exercise their right to elect their representatives at the earliest possible date.
The President is the one who needs to make up his mind and do his duty as a national leader. He is suggesting, falsely, that there is a ‘choice’ between local government elections and general and regional elections, that is, between ‘cake’ and ‘bake.’ He is suggesting also that, APNU’s demand for local government elections is at variance with the AFC’s motion to express ‘no-confidence’ in the government, and that could pose a constitutional dilemma.
Ramotar, in so doing, is pretending that there is a contradiction. There is none. It is he who has failed the nation by not exercising his executive, constitutional duty to make a timely decision for the conduct of local government elections. It is he alone who is the author of the ‘cake-or-bake’ confusion that he is complaining about. It is he who must deliver the constitutional entitlement to both local government elections (LGE) and general and regional elections (GRE) to the nation. He cannot laugh it off.
Ramotar acknowledged that he did promise ¯ in the PPPC 2011 election manifesto ¯ that, once his party was returned to office, local government elections would be held within the first year. He admitted reneging on his own promise. He explained, fatuously, “… I did not anticipate that we would have had a one-seat minority in Parliament and that created political uncertainty… within what we call the politics of the country.”
Ramotar had to be reminded that he failed to instruct his Minister of Local Government and Regional Development to issue the ‘Commencement Order’ to operationalise the Local Government Commission. He failed to assent to the Local Government (Amendment) Bill. He failed to assent to the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill so that elections could be held by 1st August 2014. He failed the test of presidential constitutional compliance.
Ramotar had to be reminded, also, that the passage of these bills by the National Assembly was a legitimate expression of the will of the majority and should be respected. The Guyanese people, under President Ramotar, now face a grave threat to their constitutional liberties and privileges. They continue to demand that it is their inalienable right to elect the persons they want to represent them in their towns, villages and neighbourhoods.
President Ramotar tried to be jolly in New York, but his jokes did not travel well across the Atlantic. It seemed that he was either absent-mindedly sleepwalking or cold-heartedly denying the entire nation its constitutional rights. Either way, the President is contriving to lead this country into a constitutional crisis which could have catastrophic consequences.
The President’s inconsistent statements, unconstitutional conduct, dilatory tactics and unamusing sense of humour, are creating confusion and consternation. The President must demonstrate leadership. He must address the nation quickly and truthfully to assure the people that he will uphold their constitutional right to local government elections. The nation is entitled to have both cake and bake.

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