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APNU+AFC consolidates dictatorship and some are shamelessly silent
DEAR EDITOR,
Certain important stakeholders chose silence as David Granger and APNU+AFC rejected the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) and ignored the March 21st, 2019 deadline for elections. The excuse for silence was the government exercised its options to challenge the NCM in court and, while the challenge was absurd, everyone should allow the courts to adjudicate. The courts have taken more than six months, essentially granting APNU+AFC a six-month deferral of the constitutionally-mandated elections. The court processes now have been exhausted and the courts have definitively ruled the NCM was valid and elections must be held in accordance with the law. Those stakeholders who were silent have no excuse to be silent anymore. Local and international stakeholders must understand their continued silence is acquiescence, reinforcing disrespect for the constitution and supporting dictatorship.
One of the most worrying silent stakeholders has been CARICOM. CARICOM has been shamelessly hypocritical in the events in Guyana since December 21st, 2018. After the NCM, CARICOM claimed the matter was a judicial one and everyone should await the outcome of the judicial process. Now that the Judiciary has spoken, including the CARICOM court, the CCJ, I expect CARICOM to continue its silence. They have not even urged the government and other stakeholders to respect the law. Their silence is acquiescence to the ongoing railroading of Guyana’s constitution and democratic processes.
CARICOM’s silence in the face of constitutional malfeasance in Guyana abrogates its future ability to speak out against authoritarianism and unconstitutional behaviour anywhere else. It will be sheer hypocrisy if CARICOM tries to speak out against any assault on democracy anywhere else, should its silence persists as one of its governments continue to disrespect both the constitution and the judiciary, in effect consolidating dictatorship. If a dictatorship exists where CARICOM’s headquarters is located and CARICOM chooses silence, its legitimacy to ever speak out is forever dented. Yet I would be shocked if CARICOM does the right thing and speak out. They did not even once speak out when the PNC carried on for 28 years with a brutal dictatorship and rigged elections. CARICOM turned the other way then and CARICOM seems determined to turn the other way again.
The ABCE countries, to their credit, immediately urged all the political stakeholders to respect the rulings of the CCJ and to hold elections in accordance with the constitution. Having urged the political stakeholders to respect the law and democratic processes, the question is what are these countries prepared to do as the Guyana Government has already pronounced its intention to ignore the rulings. Essentially the ABCE countries’ urgings for all political stakeholders to respect the constitution and rulings of the CCJ has been rejected by APNU+AFC. David Granger and APNU+AFC is emphatic – they will determine the terms, conditions and timeline for holding election, CCJ or no CCJ, ABCE countries, or no ABCE countries. Granger and APNU+AFC have unequivocally thumb their noses at the CCJ and the ABCE countries.
David Granger, in his usual self-righteous style, on one hand meaninglessly parrot the mantra he will respect the CCJ’s rulings. On the other hand, he insists he is unable to uphold the law. Either he respects the CCJ and call elections in accordance with the law or he does not care about the CCJ. His Prime Minister and his Finance Minister let the “cat out of the bag” when they insist, CCJ or no CCJ, no elections are being held in accordance with the law. Elections, according to them, will be held under terms and condition and in a timeline, APNU+AFC decide. True, the CCJ decisions mean that the Cabinet is resigned, that parliament no longer can legally sit. It is true that Granger now is in charge of a caretaker government. It is true that the CCJ decision means that at the maximum, elections must be held within 90 days. But these truths only apply to those of us who believe in democracy, those of us who are dictated to by the laws and by the constitution of Guyana.
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy
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