A knee on the backs of all Guyanese, too!

Jun 14, 2020 Features / Columnists, News, The Story within the Story

By Leonard Gildarie

Well, well, well. It is another day in our country. Crossroads may be an apt coined word for what we are seeing.
Today makes 105 days since the March 2nd elections. Yesterday, Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, according to the media, delivered his highly anticipated report to the Guyana Elections Commission.
A highly charged, divisive national recount of the March 2nd elections has been completed at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
Guyana watched in disbelief at the unfolding drama, from media being left outside, to the video live streaming not being allowed of the proceedings.
The international community has come in for criticisms, starting with the Carter Center, then Caribbean leaders. The representatives of the western countries have also been criticized for their stance.
They have called for a recognition of the elections results. With the vote recount, it was the strident call for the credible process to be recognized and accepted that was being transmitted.
Today, we are not in a good place. According to my calculations, it has been over 540 days since that critical no-confidence motion in the National Assembly halted Guyana.
That is about 18 months or one and half years since the vote.
I have never been a lazy person when it comes to work. I like to be in the thick of things. In fact, I have been accused of being a workaholic, and many other things.
I literally jump out of bed every day, worried that I will miss something.
The last 18 months have wasted the lives of over 700,000 of our people.
It has exposed our insecurities and fears and drove a bigger wedge in our people.
To say we are divided would not explain the situation. Social media has brought a level of ugliness and anger to the fore.
To complex matters would be the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seriously dropped the ball on information for the people.
The country has done well in keeping figures down especially taking into account the wide open borders.
I am going to make some calls here that will not make the populace happy.
The declaration by GECOM next week will come. It will happen. The recognition and acceptance of it, I project, will not.
The Coalition says it is deeply convinced that things went wrong on Elections Day. That votes were stuffed in the ballot boxes and records to corroborate were missing.
The Coalition is no longer pursuing that it won. Rather, it is saying that there is enough evidence to conclude that the elections were flawed and filled with fraud.
The international and local community, via their observers, have deemed March 2nd as a day when elections were above board.
The coalition insist that this is not so.
Based on the posture of President David Granger and the mutterings of the coalition, it can be concluded that there will be no acceptance of the recount results which have placed the Opposition’s People’s Progressive Party/Civic as the winner.
I want to come back to 18 months since that historic no-confidence motion.
We have been tossed like a rag doll in a canoe in the middle of storm. Our bodies and minds have been overwhelmed and we have become numb.
Our region is angry with us. When former regional leaders speak, especially with the seeming endorsements of other prominent ones, we have to pay attention.
CARICOM is in a dilemma. Its headquarters is in Guyana.
It will be in uncharted waters. Owen Arthur, former leader of Barbados is clear. If there is a non-acceptance of the results, there will be repercussions, maybe even suspension from international bodies.
Let me say I abhor any attempts from foreign countries to dictate what happens here.
We need advice. We need the counsel. However, we cannot throw decades of relation to the wayside.
There is a mad rush for power by all and sundry. The kitty jar appears broke. So it cannot be for that reason.
In the meantime, the people of Guyana are on the grounds, on their bellies, with the knees of the politicians on their backs.
We have no winners.
In the meantime, our resources are being taken away, drilled out, mined out, whatever you will.
I am going for a long drive today. I need it.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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