The teratology of politics in Guyana

Feb 11, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There is no other country like Guyana. Its silent, scared majority, idiotic ubiquity, funny sides, unwanted tragedies, cries of anguish, shambolic governance, lawless lives, illogical thinking and clownish acts have few parallels around the globe.
You encounter some crazy stuff here and you shake your head and walk away because you know that only in Guyana, they can happen.
I remember when my mother-in law died, the private hospital said they can only issue one original death certificate. The funeral parlour said it wanted the original death certificate in order to accept the dead. The NIS insisted it must have the original death certificate to pay death duties. If you find this situation funny, it is not. It is stupid and sad.
Our post office says that a requirement for posting a parcel is that the customer must bring an envelope with his/her address and the date stamped of the post office. Is that logical? Does Guyana live with logical regulations?
In every dimension of life in this sad land, the impossible appears as normal. The macabre is accepted as routine. The bizarre is seen as the norm.
Take the story of Ash Deonarine, former Deputy Manager of GPL. An arrest warrant was issued for him for fraud at GPL involving the large sum of $27 million. The police sought the help of Interpol in locating Deonarine. When this newspaper reported on the case, Deonarine sued for a billion dollars. A lawyer actually took that case and filed a writ.
Kaieteur News was funny. It agreed to pay Deonarine but first he must receive the money in person in Guyana. Once he stretches out his hand to collect, he will collect a pair of handcuffs. Could there be another bizarre situation like this in any other country?
When it comes to politics, political deportment, and political realities, there is no other country like Guyana. If you are from another planet and you read about the pronouncements that come in the name of the WPA and AFC, you are bound to believe that these are major political parties. But the reality when it hits you will floor you.
If you are from another planet, you must see the recent declaration of the WPA as the business of one of Guyana’s major organizations. The party is demanding house to house registration from GECOM before elections are held. But who or what is the WPA?
That party has never contested a local government poll and last participated in a general election more than 20 years ago.
So the question is, what votes can it bring and where are these votes coming from? Team Benschop had far more currency than the WPA and in the 2015 elections, only bagged 112 votes. It is doubtful the WPA can reap half of what Benschop got.
So the second question is, does the PNC feel it will get more votes if it continues with the WPA in an electoral partnership? Then there is the AFC. Who or what is the AFC? It got 10 percent of the votes in the 2011 balloting. Since then, it has only contested the local government poll of 2018 in its own name and was completely, not partially, but totally wiped out. Out of 88 local government authorities (LLA), it only contested in 36 and failed to win even one NDC.
Finally, foreign citizens sitting as MPs in the National Assembly, the court ruled that it is illegal to do so. And who asked the court for a decision? Not the opposition, not a civil entity but the ruling party itself. Since the court’s judgment, Lennox Shuman of the Amerindian oriented party has renounced his Canadian status. Gail Teixeira of the opposition declared she is willing to give up her own.
But there is not a word from the government benches that have foreign nationals sitting in the House. The publicly revealed names are Joe Harmon and Carl Greenidge. You would think in a normal country with normal logics and functional rationality, the moral obligation would be for the MPs on the government side of the House to say something now that the court has ruled.
Joe Harmon was quite visible in the official opening of the PNC’s campaign office at Vreed-en-Hoop last week. Granger at that event spoke about the government’s intention to remain in office despite the no-confidence vote because the constitution doesn’t prevent it from continuing.
One would have thought that Harmon would have at least hinted that a statement in coming. But so far, nothing from Harmon and not a word from Greenidge. Can you call this, “the silence of the lambs”?

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