In finding yourself in Guyana, democracy has to be a casualty

Jul 24, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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I have been on television panels where the topic of President Forbes Burnham’s autocratic politics came up. On every occasion, the panelists, who are admirers of Mr. Burnham, would shamelessly say that Burnham had to work under serious disadvantages that were put in his way, so he didn’t have the space he so desired to channel his visionary politics. I didn’t buy that argument and will never buy it.
Leaders who do not have sufficient maneuverability to pursue their goals do not go about victimizing their critics. That is nonsense and it will remain nonsense.
When Barack Obama pioneered his health insurance legislation nicknamed Obamacare, he had to strip the Bill of several dimensions, because he didn’t have support even among his own Democratic legislators for his version. Litigation in the Supreme Court saw even more stripping. When Obama won a second term, he lost congressional majority and lacked space to pursue his remaining goals like immigration reform.
During all these obstacles, Obama never slid into autocratic tendencies. One recalls the days of Michael Manley and his pursuit of democratic socialism. Manley was trying to reform traditional Jamaica that didn’t embrace the model. Yet Manley never went in authoritarian directions.
When you start a job, either as President, Prime Minister, head of the armed forces, head of the judiciary, head of a major financial institution, despite the obstacles, you cannot become a dictator and get rid of those who disagree with you. Rights, freedoms and justice are not contextual. They have no context. They have objective existence. Natural law has no context. Natural law exists as part of the natural order of life.
Governments cannot cite difficult circumstances to justify harming others. Fidel Castro benefitted from legal recognition of rights, then went on to deny others who criticized him that similar legal recognition.
Castro attempted to overthrow the Batista Government, failed, and was jailed instead of being executed. Castro executed countless numbers of Cubans who tried to remove his government and those he felt threatened by, including someone ordained by Castro himself as a national hero – General Ochoa, who defeated South African forces in Angola. Hugo Chávez in Venezuela emulated Castro. Chávez attempted to overthrow an elected government, failed, and was jailed for a mere few years like Castro was. Chávez dealt harshly with those who plotted against him.
City Hall, under the unelected monarch named Royston King and Czarina, Patricia Chase-Green, is as far away from good governance as Alaska is from Guyana. City Hall is a den of authoritarian behaviour. Yet President Granger and Minister Raphael Trotman are inclined to justify autocracy at City Hall. First it was the President who said that the review of the parking meter contract was done to detect any financial impropriety. But is it only financial impropriety that makes a contract repugnant? Surely, a contract can be riddled with moral and political improprieties.
If I give my helper a contract to repair computers and she knows nothing about computers, even without any financial skullduggery, such a contract is improper. This is exactly what happened with the parking meter situation. The President may be relieved if no money nastiness was involved, but is he denying that the thing is a scandal, given the other sordid dimensions? Isn’t a scandal an act of impropriety? I guess the President may have his own definition of what constitutes an improper arrangement.
Let’s quote from the Chronicle on the position of Minister Trotman on City Hall politics. “[You will find]…today something is said, tomorrow something is done or is not done, so all of this, or the way I see it, is part of the Council finding itself; finding its way and its identity, and going on to do well for the City,” said Trotman. Cabinet, he said, has pronounced on the parking meter issue, but is not prepared to intervene in affairs of the City Council. “(Government will) not intervene and instruct, and take over the process. It has to be allowed to flourish.”
So if you are a new teacher at school, and you molest a few students, it is understandable, because it is all part of finding yourself. If you take a few bucks and start a mechanic workshop, it is alright to steal your customers’ car parts, because it all part of finding yourself. After you have found yourself, you will (to use Trotman’s peculiar word) flourish.
Democracy never flourished, because it never existed in Guyana, so our rulers do not know what it is. The way they treat political and moral violations, I doubt they ever will.

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