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DEMOCRACY ON TRIAL…Is Guyana becoming more democratic? Or is democracy on trial

May 09, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

One way of looking at it is to see that general and regional elections, certified as free and fair were held in May last year and local government elections, for which there have been no complaints of irregularities held in March of this year
But are governments- national, regional and local- that emerged from those elections been operating in a democratic manner? Or have these authorities been flouting the will of the people by the manner in which decisions are being made?
We have had a most distasteful situation in West Berbice where supporters of the APNU disrupted the holding of meetings of the Regional Democratic Council of Region 5.
The reasons given are small-minded and petty. The Chairman is alleged to have stayed away from a meeting held by the President to hand over a bus to the RDC for use by school children. This was viewed by supporters of the APNU as an insult to the President and so they are demanding an apology from the Chairman and are disrupting the holding of meetings until this apology is forthcoming.
The Chairman has denied the allegation that he deliberately stayed away but even if he did do so, that his prerogative. He is an elected representative of the people and is not subordinate to the President and the supporters of APNU seem to feel.
The disruption of the meetings is a case of bullyism. There is nothing wrong in demanding an apology but to hold the meetings of the council to ransom for the apology is in effect seeking to use force and pressure for an act that should be free and voluntarily.
Those demanding an apology really do not want an apology; they are seeking to humiliate the person form whom the apology is demanded.
He should not apologize under circumstances that amount to duress. He should not apologize because he had a right to not attend and in fact the event in question was turned into a partisan political affair. One should not expect public officials to be part of that sort of charade.
How democratic also is the decision of central government to decide on the future of the town of Bartica? Should it not be a decision of the Town Council and the people of Bartica to determine whether their town should be a solar town?
Local government elections were supposed to give people a say in what was happening. But it seems as if decisions are being made for the people outside of their representative organizations. This is weakness of our system of local government which must be corrected as soon as possible because if this trend continues, local authorities are going to be puppets of central administration and this is not what was promised. The promises sound good and are well meaning but in the final analysis it is for the people to decide.
Finally, there is the issue once again with the vendors. When is a meeting of the full Council going to be held to debate the decision. The decision will be carried because the ruling coalition dominates the composition of City Hall but democracy is about a process and that process should allow those who are opposed to have their say and for their views to be recorded for posterity?
That debate will also help to clarify how major decisions are to be taken. The decision to remove the Stabroek vendors is not an ordinary decision. It reflects a major policy change because even as late as last Christmas there were persons saying that some amount of vending had to be tolerated.
Vendors were being charged one thousand dollars per week as a cleansing fee while legitimate shop owners were being asked to pay two thousand five hundred dollars per day.  This was unfair.
More unfairness is likely to come unless people begin to speak out against what is happening in the country.

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