The government is not illegal

Aug 21, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The PPP/C’s campaign to remove the APNU+AFC government from office has followed three (3) main phases to date.
1. The passage of the no-confidence motion in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018: This dealt an unsuspected blow to the government but was ultimately unsuccessful because of the legal challenges to the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) and the inability of GECOM to conduct credible snap elections.
2. Recourse to the courts to enforce the NCM: After the Guyana Court of Appeal had invalidated the NCM, the legal phase of the operation was put into effect with challenges at the level of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and, earlier this month, at the Guyana High Court. Both challenges were unsuccessful in their principal objectives of forcing the resignation of the government and imposing a date for elections.
3. Destabilizing political communication and protest campaign to bring down the government: The Leader of the Opposition has declared that the government is illegal and that it became illegal due to its failure to resign and to hold elections by March 21, 2019, and has urged members of civil society, including religious bodies, the regional and international communities to support their condemnation of the government and to impose punitive sanctions.
Others argue that that the life of the government will expire on September 18, 2019 if elections are not held before that date and unless the National Assembly votes to grant an extension. Some civil society, and recently formed political organizations, have also demonstrated and joined the demand for the resignation of the government and the early holding of elections.
The notion that the government is, could be or would be illegal has no basis in the principles and practice of democratic government, the constitution or law, and no court or parliament has made, or supported any such declaration. This is an entirely novel political concept based on fake news and alternative facts.
The President and government were elected directly by the people for a five-year term which has not ended, or been extended, and election preparations have begun. The CCJ was quite clear that the operationalising of the NCM was not a judicial imperative but a political and constitutional one, requiring consultations between the President, National Assembly and GECOM.
The failure of the National Assembly, occasioned by the PPP/C’s declared boycott, to address this issue cannot be laid at the feet of the government or be used as an excuse that the government has breached the constitution. The calculated and deliberate abdication of its constitutional responsibility by the National Assembly, which has not been dissolved or prorogued, does not, and cannot, make the government illegal.
The CCJ designation of caretaker status does not translate, in any language, to illegality or illegitimacy.
The use of such politically charged, factually inaccurate and misleading characterizations and scare-mongering is tantamount to crude political extortion and is intended, at a minimum, to create suspicion and to invite disruption, civil disobedience and protest against the government.
The PPP/C, while in office, failed to win simple majorities in the 2011 and 2015 general and regional elections and, now out of office, has taken no discernible steps to broaden its appeal or widen its base. It has even called upon its supporters not to support the current house to house registration exercise. These are not the actions of a political party confident of victory at the upcoming elections which are but a few months away.
Sincerely,
Oscar Dolphin

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