Ministry of Communities violated the law in Mabaruma

May 31, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
In 1964, Forbes Burnham said, “this government holds that all the people of this country are equally important…”. Burnham’s speech was not as eloquent or as fantastic a speech as Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech of 1947 titled the “Tryst with Destiny”, but it was good enough to clarify an important principle that all our people are equally important, as spelt out in our Constitution. Thus when I observe the outpourings of actions from this PNC-led Granger administration, I am alarmed at how far this new PNC band of leaders have deviated from Burnham’s words in that 1964 speech as the nation plotted a path to independence.
Some may want to say to me that Burnham said one thing but did another during his tenure. My response is that from my reading of history and real conversation with real people, never in the history of Guyana, has people ever felt this abused by a PNC led government, as we are witnessing today in 2017 under President David Granger. Burnham was multiple times over more sensitive of the political environment than Granger, so much so that he always injected himself into all the communities of Guyana to make himself aware of the political pulse of the nation. He may not have done much about the sufferings of the people, but he was never apathetic to the people’s challenges.
Very few countries of the world have as diverse a population as Guyana (religiously, ethnically, socially, culturally and so on). But this diversity should not be something to exploit to get ahead personally. Only a selfish mind that abhors Guyana will do this. Our diversity is something to celebrate as we mold a nation. I do not know where Granger learned his politics but it is all wrong and is grounded in a philosophy unlearned governance which will bury Guyana for decades to come if it is not arrested quickly. Even under Burnham, we never had 93% of the Permanent Secretaries being hand-picked or the newly appointed CEO’s being ex-GDF officials. Such a policy is anti-national and anti-development.
This is where the people come in. As custodian of the Constitution, the majority has to demand Constitutional Reforms, which Moses Nagamootoo continues to deceive the nation on. But more importantly, the people have to use every opportunity to highlight their plight. Those in the Diaspora have great influence and must use it to highlight situations like the one at Mabaruma to your Congress people, Senators and Members of Parliament.
What happened in Mabaruma in the North West is clear evidence that this PNC led Granger government is committed to an anti-democratic course. The PPP won a majority of the votes in Mabaruma, but equal seats to the PNC-led Coalition. In such a situation, the law is absolutely clear. The law says that the voters must then directly elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. But Minister Bulkan refused to follow the rule of law. Rather he took the opportunity to circumvent the law and embarked on a process that resulted in the party with the lower amount of votes seizing the Mayor’s position.
Yet we cannot hear a squeak from Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, who before May 2015 sold himself as this great democrat. They say, if you want to see the true character of a man – give him power. I call on the US Ambassador who comes from a country with a tradition where “all men are created equal” and one adult is equal to one vote is normal, to use his influence to walk this entire process back into the realms of the rule of law. Because of Team Granger, Guyana has now broken with that democratic tradition that we as a people had come to be associated with after the Carter Center and President Carter intervened and paved the way for free and fair elections in 1992.
Sase Singh

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