A dictatorial approach to governance and an unwillingness to promote democracy

Jan 06, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
A useful perspective for understanding the mindset of the PPP leadership is their dictatorial approach to governance and their unwillingness to accept and widen the democratic process and culture of the society.
Central to this perspective is the claim that the senior leaders of the party had prepared neither Jagdeo nor Ramotar to govern the country based on the democratic principle of give and take, open dialogue, cooperation, consultation and respect for differences of viewpoint. As such, therefore, the PPP political leadership, despite winning elections after elections for the last 22 years on the ‘one man, one vote’ concept is no different in outlook and political behaviour from the dictators of Cuba or North Korea who wield their whips over the heads of a cowed populace.
Interestingly, in Guyana’s popular imagination, PPP dictatorship is associated with loud aggression, bullying, violent threats and vulgarity. Their acerbic tongues and endless insults are associated with indecency, immorality and lack of integrity. This is important for understanding the current crop of PPP leaders who have settled on a strategy of berating their opponents as their main response to poor governance, lack of accountability and transparency, and their inability to reduce crime and corruption. To greet the current human suffering this way is a tyranny worse than anything one can ever imagine in the modern world. For the PPP cabal to berate their opponents is bad enough, but to dictate to the populace sends the message that the people are not worthy to be listened to.
It is bad politics to dictate and bully people when many of the things they sought to improve their living standards demand serious attention and urgent decisions from the government itself. It is dictatorial when the regime spends $4.5 billion of the taxpayers’ money without the approval of Parliament; approves and award contracts without the Procurement Commission; abandons the bargaining process and gives a meagre 5 percent increase in salary/wages annually to civil/public servants; disrespects the Constitution; violates the separation of powers’ principle and prorogues Parliament; and refuses to hold Local Government elections since 1994.
The fact that the PPP regime continues to ignore the wishes of the people violates the cardinal rule of good governance and is dictatorial. The leaders cannot distinguish between scoring cheap political points with their propaganda, distortions and untruths and providing genuine and good leadership to a trusting public. The corrupt practices have been fully exposed and after losing so many political battles to the opposition, winning at any cost, including destroying the environment, raping the treasury and pawning the country to foreigners, has become everything.
There is a more worrying side to the dictatorial rule of the PPP regime. Whilst the majority of people have a tendency to associate corruption with dictatorship there may be a more obvious explanation, which the cabal is too afraid to admit, that is their belief that Guyana and its resources belong to them and that their main purpose on earth is to rule Guyana forever.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the PPP viciously criticized the PNC for being corrupt and for being dictatorial, but today it is the same PPP that has become the worst dictatorship in all of the Caribbean – second only to Cuba – and the second most corrupt country in the region after Haiti.
The way in which the PPP governs this country is reflective of the unprepared student at the back of the class, who bends his head and prays for the bell to ring to dismiss class when called upon to respond to a question.
Asquith Rose and Harish Singh

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