The truth of the matter is games are being played on both sides

Jul 31, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

As the political debate continues on the legality of the ongoing house-to-house registration, I’ve concluded that Guyanese are being taken for a ride on a rollercoaster of deceit.
At a recent press conference hosted by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, he claimed that the order given by the former Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Retired) James Patterson, was “secretly” gazetted days prior to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)’s ruling, which declared that the Chairman’s appointment was unconstitutional. The only thing I disagree with is the notion of something being “secretly” gazetted. How does one secretly gazette an order? Did Mr. Jagdeo intend to say that the order was gazetted and somehow backdated? When an order is gazetted, isn’t it being placed in the public domain? I don’t get that statement, “Secretly gazetted”. Maybe someone can say what that means.
Moving on, Mr. Jagdeo says that the ruling “overtook” the order; meaning that the CCJ’s ruling has somehow rendered that order made on June 11, 2019, null and void. He uses that argument as motivation to issue calls for a national boycott of the house-to-house registration.
Editor, my problem is not with Mr Jagdeo issuing calls, but rather, his ignorance to the fact of the matter. Regardless of whether the CCJ’s ruling overtook that order or not, the reality is no court has deemed – at the time this letter was being written – the process illegal. Then if it is not illegal, then it can only be legal, right?
In addition, if no court of the land has pronounced on the legality of the process, then why is Mr. Jagdeo calling it illegal and asking people not to participate. Are we looking therefore, at a politician’s call for subversion of law? Moreover, what are the ramifications of such an action?
Then his call for the boycott has now resulted in GECOM’s enumerators being subject to hostility by house-to-house objectors. The Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Mr. Keith Lowenfield, just recently stated that enumerators are being endangered. He said that GECOM has received reports of anti-H2H supporters turning their dogs on these workers.
I mean, come on! Why are we, ordinary Guyanese allowing politicians to distort our humanity? If you’re against the registration process, why don’t you indicate and let the people move on to someone who wants to participate?
Also, if Mr Jagdeo is arguing that the CCJ’s ruling “overtook” that order, then isn’t it logical to assume that other orders issued by the unconstitutionally-appointed Patterson prior to that ruling, are also null and void? Why is Mr. Jagdeo only focusing on that operationalisation order? Someone needs to look at the other orders that Patterson made and see if there exists some clue to answering that question.
Editor, another troubling utterance was recently made by the President himself. The Head of State, a former media man, claims that the list is bloated. His use of a specific number has baffled me quite a bit. Mr Granger is an academic and formidable researcher and I’ve read his books and many of his speeches. But how could he utter numbers when he cannot support that claim?
The voters’ list is a statistical representation of the people who are eligible to be part of a democratic right, which has been guaranteed to us by the Constitution of Guyana, and to make assertions of statistics that are not grounded in fact, I find to be very troubling.
Mr. Lowenfied has said that the President might not have been accurate in his assertions, and that he (Lowenfield) is yet to discuss with the president, the “numbers game”.
Just days after, Mr. Lowenfield revealed this to the media, the Finance Minister, Mr. Winston Jordan said, (and editor, you can confirm this with your journalist Mr. Kemol King) that Mr. Lowenfield has communicated that he might have been “misquoted”.
Really? Is this really happening?
I find it hard to belief that Mr. Lowenfield was misquoted. This is the same Lowenfield who responded to the Private Sector Commission (PSC) for making claims that he was deliberately eluding their requests to meet with him.
He jumped at the PSC for commenting on his professionalism but has not come out to say that he was misquoted for debunking the President?
So, in nutshell: We have a politician who – without any backing of the court – deems a constitutional process illegal; a President who erroneously quotes statistics; an official who debunks the Head of State for doing so; and a Minister of government who says that the debunker was misquoted. This is a circus!
The truth of the matter is: games are being played on both sides. It is as clear as day. Meanwhile, party supporters are in engaging in flame wars on social media; and exhibiting hostility towards enumerators who trying to earn some money in these difficult times. This degrading and bashing of each other and making racist remarks and posting modified picture of each other in compromising positions on social media, needs to stop.
While we continue to fight amongst ourselves, others are taking chunks of our patrimony behind our noses. Our passion for arguing on matters that are political in nature, are sometimes misplaced. The more we fight, the more dust is created. This dust is a cloak for others to pass undetected. Stay awake Guyana, and be strong. We will make it together, eventually.

Yours truly,
Marcus Hope

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