Decentralising the presidency could be the road to dictatorship

Feb 10, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The idea advanced by President Ali of decentralizing the presidency, on the  face of it, is laudable and I have no doubt that he means well, for this is what the few operating within the area of authority feel. One friend, who I have known for many years, assured me that they are not members of the PPP, but are convinced that President Ali has good intentions.

Editor, herein resides a serious problem, a dangerous dilemma and a daunting danger is first those in charge of disseminating information for public consumption and let us not use what is now considered a pejorative term – propaganda -would lead us to believe that this latest rubric of ‘One Guyana’ is the initiative of President Ali.

On Monday, 30th October 2006, the PNC led group entered Parliament under the rubric of ‘One Guyana’. Second, there is no evidence that apart from using known means of inducement there has been any effort to find a rapprochement with the other significant groups, political, social and cultural in Guyana. If you ignore the trade unions, such as the GTU, TUC and GPSU, not deemed to be compliant clients of the State apparatus, the idea of decentralizing the presidency would flip-flop  and eventually fall. Third, the idea is not new. The Burnham-led Government, for the identical reasons advanced by President Ali, established six Regional Sub-Governments and there were six Regional Ministers appointed. Four, as far as I can recall, are still alive – Phillip Duncan, Oscar Clarke, Abdul Salim and Joshua Chowritmottoo.

Later, the 10 Administrative Regions we now have were established with 10 regional chairmen in order to deal speedily with issues and concerns affecting residents within these regions. This is a legal and constitutional requirement. The dichotomy of having within those 10 regions, large Municipalities, such as Georgetown, New Amsterdam, covered by by Law 28:01 was and remains now a dichotomy, is a problem that existed and still does and needs to be resolved.

The big question is what are the unsatisfactory aspects of the present system? Is it that the decentralizing of the presidency within established regions is either a campaign stunt or a step to one man centralized control of all facets of our lives? For the purpose of this letter, I will not insinuate a slide to dictatorship or the emergence of, as we’ve seen elsewhere, the ultra-right government where everything is centralized and devolves from a presidential hierarchy. This of course is the hallmark of a dictatorship. Fourth is what appears to be a worrisome dilution and, in some cases, denigration of the established public service. This is exacerbated for the appointment of a number of persons to perform specific duties known as Contract Officers inserted between and betwixt the public service.

All of the above is made murky by appointing persons whose major qualifications is their political loyalty to the incumbent government. Fifthly, we have seen for decades that unless the Government, and here we have all been guilty, actively encourages a professionally driven public service, police force and other security forces, nothing of greatness will take place. A professionally staffed public service of qualified and competent persons is the guarantee that ordinary people will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this  massive wealth in a country with beautiful weather all year and no natural disasters, there is no need for poverty and distress in our country.

In all of the above, if we are to move forward, if we are to benefit from the mighty bounty of no natural disasters, fabulous fortune, we must tackle ruthlessly, fearlessly the bogey-man of corruption and nepotism. My advice to  President Ali, if he is really serious, is to surround himself with men and women of quality and not ignore our cherished institutions upon which the foundation of our democracy rests, for example,  I heard the government benches in parliament set out the reason for this Men on Mission (MoM) programme but could not state who were the executive officers that ultimately control the distribution of these state funds. What I found bewildering is that within the existing government the use of the Ministries, there is adequate provision to deal with these problems.  Problems that are neither unique nor new to Guyana, so what’s the use of these Ministries of Labour, and Human Services and Social Security. This means that when the President learns of a person with bellyache he will create a new institution, a new health facility to deal with a bellyache that has plagued us and known to us before he set up his elaborate cabinet of twenty-three ministers

President Ali must ensure that within his cabinet and beyond he has persons of integrity who are not up for sale and those who understand the significance of the event that took place at midnight on the 26th of May, 1966 when the Union Jack was lowered at the Queen Elizabeth Park and the Golden Arrowhead was hoisted and when our two National Titans, Forbes Burnham and Dr. Cheddi Jagan embraced to the delight of the assembled crowd, that we were free at last, free from the mental and physical chains of slavery, the hardships of indentureship and that as ‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny’, we  say to those who come to harvest our gold and natural resources that as one people, with one nation and one destiny, we will settle for nothing less than a fair share of our oil, gold and other non-renewable resources.

In other words, decentralizing the presidency to the regions must be a deeper concept, and be sustainable. No matter what the President says or does, when people in the region see a bridge collapsing after a few months, when they see a building cannot be properly used and the contractors are fully paid. When you increase salaries by 10 percent and the cost of living goes up by 30 to 40% percent, decentralizing the presidency to the regions becomes hollow and hard to swallow.

President Ali must reach out to men and women at home and abroad, with competency, a deep sense of nationalism to guide him out of troubled water into calm seas of plenty and peace. I hope he will listen for the sake of a good Guyana.

Yours truly,

Hamilton Green

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• Decentralising, dictatorship, Hamilton Green, PNC, President Ali

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