GECOM Chair must jettison partisanship

Oct 25, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
The controversy over the recent appointment of the GECOM chair does not address what should be the primary concern of voters. This is not to say that the unilaterality of the choice, the dismissing of all 18 nominees as unfit and improper, the rejection of the Carter/Price instrument that was precisely designed to ensure that the chair had the approval of both the opposition leader and the president – all are vital points of contention.
My primary concern is: can the selectee, who comes straight from the bowels of the PNC, rise to the occasion. As spineless as almost all men have been in the political history of Guyana, there are a few examples of decent souls who went against the grain and stood their moral ground against the party line. For example, Archie Codrington, Mayor of Georgetown (circa 1971), made it crystal clear he was the mayor for all of Georgetown, including non-party people. Another example that comes to mind is A.P. Alleyne, Speaker of the House (circa 1966). With him, you wouldn’t dare try to push the party line and exclude everything else. And these great old school folks operated in an authoritarian environment. (By way of contrast, consider Moses Nagamootoo’s statement that the president’s personal selection has brought an end to the controversy!)
GECOM is perhaps the most sacred institution in the country. I would put it above Parliament and even the Judiciary. It is GECOM that will deliver democracy or dictatorship to Guyana. He who assumes the head of this holy grail would have ascended unto a new stratum of being and must surely be awe-struck by the enormity of the responsibility. He should not only jettison all partisanship, but do things to make it appear so, especially to the other half of the populace that is not comfortable with the way things went.
Sad to say, the cloak-and-dagger manner in which the appointment was made gives rise to suspicion. An appointment of this significance should have more aura than the investiture of the U.G. vice chancellor done earlier this year. Was the president discussing the matter in secret with the prospective selectee while receiving – and, hopefully considering – the official lists from the opposition leader. Such action would be highly improper, and the prospective selectee should have objected.
No reasonable voter of sound mind can honestly say that the lists do not contain at least one fit and proper soul whose integrity and fairness is assured. Two awful indirect statements are made by the president’s outright dismissal: 1) the list of citizens, to borrow language from President Trump, are no-good sons of a bitch; 2) the president wants a partisan party man.
Does the president plan to rig the elections and eclipse the achievement of his mentor and idol? I say eclipse, because this time it would be done in peace time, not in cold war times with a Marxist/Socialist alternative waiting in the slips.
One of the first steps in such a plan is to have a compliant GECOM head. And this is one of the hardest acts. It must be done in the open. And it has been done. All the other supporting actions could be done in relative secrecy shrouded from the public.
The year 2020 is expected to see Guyana become an Arabian kind of oil state in South America. For that reason alone it is important to win the elections and preside over the black gold that would be flowing all over. Analysts are giving the opposition a very good chance of winning a free and fair 2020 elections. This prospect makes it incumbent on the governing party to win by any means necessary, even rigging.
The one ray of hope that shone singularly through the dismal pall the event has cast is the concern expressed by the British High Commissioner. I hope the U.S. Embassy does not turn a blind eye as they did for over 25 years, enabling the rigging to become the established practice in the land. Though, I must acknowledge, it is the same United States through the Carter Center that enabled the restoration of democracy in 1992.
P. D. Sharma
Los Angeles, California

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