The tyranny of the minority

Nov 16, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
Guyana is now experiencing the tyranny of the minority. The action by President Donald Ramotar to prorogue Parliament should cause former US President Jimmy Carter, who is a ‘Born Again Christian’, to revisit Guyana one last time.
His mission should be to perform the ‘last rites’ for the demise of parliamentary democracy which he is credited to have helped restore to Guyana in 1992. For him, the ‘euthanizing’ of our Parliament by Ramotar, to ‘preserve’ his political life, has got to be more than just ‘sobering’. Rather, it has got to be ‘soul-searching’ because it has brought all his hard work to zero.
The misuse of this Constitutional provision is so extraordinary, that our collective reaction as a sovereign people can only be correspondingly, extraordinary.
For the PPPC, this period of prorogation is in effect – a ‘shallow grave’ in which they have buried or entombed parliamentary democracy.
For the combined opposition therefore, this period has got to be used for the ‘Resurrection of Democracy’. Talk of ‘restoration of democracy’ does not apply now. That was pre-1992, when our fledgling democracy was alive and well despite its spots and blemishes.
The PPP government has now dealt a mortal blow to the raison d’etre for their own existence. The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Brig. David Granger, is right in declaring that there can be no engagement by the combined opposition with the regime during this period.
The Combined opposition must seize the moment, because the stars are aligned perfectly in their favor. It is called ‘providence’!
Not luck and chance. Reacting to ‘providence’ requires deliberate action and keeping up of momentum, so that, on ‘resurrection morn,’ when Parliament eventually resumes, Guyana will be fundamentally transformed.
This is the time for a ‘Guyana Magna Carta’. Every great nation has had moments that fundamentally transformed their societies. In the 13th Century, the British had the first Magna Carta (The Great Charter) which protected British subjects against royal abuses of power and upon which English Common Law is based. England will be celebrating the octocentenary (800th Anniversary) of the original Magna Carta, in 2015.
The Magna Carta protected and promoted people’s liberties as ‘inviolate’, and placed the first significant limit on an English monarch’s powers.
In the 18th Century, the United States had their own ‘Magna Carta,’with ‘the Bill of rights’ in which all the civil liberties of the American people and self-evident truths, are enshrined.
In pursuit of our own ‘Magna Carta’, we do not need any foreign mediator. I respect the Speaker’s call for Commonwealth support but President Carter’s intervention in 1992 has now culminated in prorogation.
In 1998, the involvement of the three wise men – Sir Alister Mc Intyre (Jamaica), Sir Shridath Ramphal (Guyana/Barbados) and Sir Henry Ford (Barbados) resulted in the Herdmanston Accord which was largely ignored by the PPP Government.
This time it has to be a total Guyanese effort which involves voting at a general election. “We the People,” must unite to reshape our democratic landscape and preserve our democracy.
The President must be subject to the law of the land and not above it. All Guyanese at home and abroad must ‘Light a candle, sing a Sankey and help resurrect Democracy’.
Standhope Williams

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