Has anything changed?

Feb 17, 2019 Letters

Dear Editor,

Statements made by President Granger at the opening of the PNC office at Vreed-en-Hoop two weeks ago, clearly indicates his contempt of the provisions of the Constitution and the ruling of High Court Chief Justice, Roxane George. When the Head of State took the Oath of Office four years ago he swore to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the country. In declaring ‘I was elected for five years’ and will not leave office until then is a clear violation of the Constitution. The President has shot himself in the foot and such remarks embrace the attributes of his late political idol in his dictatorship reign. It is superfluous to add that Article 106 (7) of the Constitution clearly states that the elected government can be removed by a no confidence vote and that Elections must be held within 90 days. The President has accepted this, in his swearing in, and now his legal squadron is challenging the validity of the Article to determine whether or not 33 votes are required for a no-confidence to pass. This cross current is nothing new to Guyana’s political climate where arrogance and power flaunting from both major Parties have become quite normal.
At the meeting, President Granger declared, ‘…You will see the transformation, the change in every community, the change in every region, the change in every village…’ This is reminiscent of the late Forbes Burnham’s program of “Feed, Clothe and House the Nation by 1976.”
Years after the colossal failure of this apparition and other policies of the Burnham’s regime, this generation of leaders from both parties have also had several failed policies that have cost the nation hundreds of millions of dollars. The construction of D’Urban Park Stadium, the renovation of Cheddi Jagan Airport, the Drug Bond scandal, the Amaila Falls Hydro Project, the white elephant Skeldon sugar factory, Enmore Packaging Plant and the shady arrangements for the Marriot Hotel, the Berbice Bridge and the 14 irrigation pumps from India, some of which did not arrive but were paid for.
And if these scandals/failures were not enough, consider this: President Granger told the crowd that he has not dissolved Parliament yet. ‘Irfaan Ali and Bharat Jagdeo cannot make me leave office because I was elected for 5 years…’ And the crowd cheered in the same bizarre manner to what was recited in 1976 by the late Forbes Burnham to a large gathering at the National Park. (Sugar workers were fighting for their regular bonuses at Christmas). “Why because of some white boy born 2000 years ago, we have to pay Christmas bonus to a certain type of people? Do you think these sugar workers- these former Bookers people, should get any Christmas bonus?” And while the crowd chanted NO, NO… many did not realize a simple fact: That they would not receive any Christmas bonus either. In regards to respecting the Constitution, moving the country forward and accounting for state monies, successive governments have failed the accountability test. Not much has changed in Guyana by the two main parties over the last 50 years. As the saying goes, the more things change the more they remain the same.

Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine
New York

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