Dear Editor,
As we commenced a new year under the PPP administration, and in particular, the Jagdeo administration, it is expected those of us who seek to analyse, critique and highlight its usual transgressions and violations will continue to be told that Mr Jagdeo and the PPP were democratically elected. As such we have no right to speak. In fact the government and its cohorts will tell us that the PNC was never democratically elected and they and others have no moral authority to speak because the PPP was elected through the process of free elections.
The issue of free elections has ever since been described as democracy.
Democracy is seen as the power of the people at work for the benefit of the entire society. Democracy can bring about a government elected with the participation of all the country’s citizens. However, democracy can see the election of a government that only pursues the interest of its group; puts measures in place to curtail or remove the rights of minorities; legislates to silence critics; suppresses media, dissent and independence; and distributes state assets unfairly.
Being democratically elected does not give any government the right to transgress the law, trample on the rights of citizens, and make unjust laws.
Those who argue for the upholding of the law, justice and respect for human rights are accused of being undemocratic. The time has come for those who label critics undemocratic to revisit that argument.
We should be wary of supposed democratic governments and we should only support and respect a democracy that is built and sustained on justice and fair play. We have a duty as citizens to watch for any anti-democratic telltale signs and speak out when we see them emerging. Our failure to do so can have dire consequences for all of us.
Over the years the Jagdeo government has run roughshod over the citizens, particularly, the African community. These transgressions are overlooked or justified under the pretext of democracy. For instance, this government has destroyed the bauxite industry pension fund, the largest single pool of money owned by the African working class; terminated the state subvention to Critchlow Labour College which provided education to a student population comprising 97 per cent Africans; terminated the Trades Union Congress’ subvention after GAWU and NAACIE left the congress; tolerated the torture of citizens; refused to investigate killings by the police and death squad of many young men; and allowed thousands of jobs to be lost without any attempt made at alternative employment or retraining to meet the new skills needed.
The time has come for those who think persons should not demand a better society to clearly understand that the democratic government of President Jagdeo is driven by policies that have been ethnically biased, undesirable and destructive to groups and society.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
Isn’t Lewis tired of flogging this dead horse about “the poor black man” getting unfaired by the “Indian” PPP government ? Where is the documentation,taking all tings into account and the overall situation of Afro-Guyanese ? Isn’t this pandering to his largely Afro-Guyanese membership in his public sector workers union ?
Lewis bleats once again about alledged “police torture and killings”. It would be interesting to see what Guyanese of all races think in a poll about the demise of these common criminals who died by the sword they lived by. What about the innocent victims, mainly working people, who were murdered and slaughtered by these criminals ? Doesn’t Lewis have anyting to say for them ? The police have to be commended for their ongoing work to help maintain the gains, including democratic governence, of the Guyanese people.
Isn’t this the same Lewis who came to Barbados and got up before a meeting of the Caribbean Labour Congress and effectively insulted Guyanese workers and others in Barbados by calling them “criminal” and in general besmirching the good name of Guyana before the Barbadian public.
Get real!, Mr. Lewis.
Whom ever you are, you are the one who should be real. Lewis is on point! This denial of the facts by some is preposterous, to say the least. I must echo the sentiments of Lewis “We should be wary of supposed democratic governments and we should only support and respect a democracy that is built and sustained on justice and fair play. We have a duty as citizens to watch for any anti-democratic telltale signs and speak out when we see them emerging. Our failure to do so can have dire consequences for all of us.” If the is flogging a dead horse, then so be it!
Reddy, How innocent are many of the victims. You are braying just like the PPP who want us to see crime in Guyana as black against Indian. You want us to ignore people like Roger Khan et al and the narco , body and gun trafficking that many of the innocent victims are involved in. You want us to ignore the evidence of contract killings with the boys helping themselves as they do their contract jobs. This way the real purpose of the crime is confused. The truth in Guyana is cloaked in racism and this is to the PPP advantage. It keeps Guyanese divided and keeps them in power. It is time that you stop bleating to cover up for the dastardly crimes against humanity being committed by this government whilst you stay in Barbados enjoying good governance and true democracy.
Further why would Lewis call the workers whose rights he is representing criminals…this does not gel Reddy. If is any body to call criminal it would be your bosses who are running a criminal state. Nice try…usual PPP tactics.
Can we see your documentation of all you said?
Lewis please be reminded that you have rights just like everyone else so i implore you to go in a crowded cinema and yell “fia” thats your right so why dont you do it?
Go do it brother Lewis, its your rights to free speech..
It is you Reddy in Barbados who need to get real! Who knows it is the very things that Mr. Lewis raised in his letter that caused you to be in Barbados.
What do you people want, bloodshed. For your information even the people who voted for this government are sufering under them. But you don’t their defenders to get real.
Painting a tiger blue don’t stop it from being a tiger. Branding about the word Democracy don’t make you Democratic.
Get Real! Reddy in Barbados. By the way when are coming back to Guyana to live under this government?
COLIN , REDDY IS NOT GOING BACK TO GUYANA , LIFE TOO SWEET IN BARBADOS !!
I have lived through the colonial government, PNC and PPP. Truth be told life were better under colonial and PNC rule than it is under the PPP. People felt the colonial was ruling us against our wishes and the PNC a dictator and the PPP democratic. Those who have lived as long as I will tell you the democratically elected PPP is the worst government Guyana ever had.
This man is a hypocrite
“Being democratically elected does not give any government the right to transgress the law, trample on the rights of citizens, and make unjust laws.”
That, right there is all that has to be said. Democracy starts with the free will of the people to elect a govt. It continues only if the people are not denied their basic and fundamental human rights, which is what this govt is and has been systematically doing and it is getting worst.
Freddy Kisson is right when he opined that Guyana has an elected dictatorship, far from the Democracy we aspire to be.
You guys should move back to Guyana…you are living out of Guyana and talking your crap while the same rights which are being trampled by the PPP are accorded you in another country….hypocritical is too much a good word to describe some of you heartless creatures.
I remember having a friendly discussion with the late Desmond Agard, may his soul rest in peace, about democracy in Guyana during the latter years of the Burnham administration. My friend was an avid supporter of the PNC and went at length to explain to me that there are many different types of democracy and what Guyana had was the democracy of cooperative socialism; a unique kind of democracy. Inspite of all the atrocities that were taking place many in the Afro educated class supported what was going on. Democracy must be maintained by having a legal infrastructure that would ensure redress for undemocratic action. The PNC has screwed Guyana from the begining by playing with the constitution and other laws to keep them in power. The PPP is governing under the laws that were created by the PNC. Do we need to change the laws of the land to ensure a western style or other democracy? Maybe rather than talk cheap you could present a constitution that you consider suitable to provide democracy other or in addition to than free and fair elections and let the society debate it. A social science treatise will not do. Guyana needs a new legal framework to check and balance current and future power maniacs.
Well said!
And the PPP seems to be on the same path as Burnham. No movement to really get the country over the race bump.
lincoln lewis, you want to know about police brutality? turn on your tv and tune in to cnn. two weeks ago the sub-way police shot and killed an innocent black man they had already subdued. last year they shot and killed a young black guy a day before he was to be married. remember rodney king? remember some of the cops got off scotch-free for these acts? all these happened in the usa, supposedly the upholder of democracy and justice. if you want to change the govt. you have your chance come 2011.
There is no chance in 2011, not a single one if Guyanese keep voting along racial lines, and you know it so enough with the disengenius ostrich syndrome.
Elections aren’t democracy, instead they are the foundations upon which a democracy could be possible. With Guyana’s elected dictatorship rendering any chance for any other party to win non-existent, what’s the sense in having any more elections? If I were the opposition, I would not compete. I would just make a statement and cede power to the majority race in Guyana because that’s how it shook out in the last elections and there is really no reason to think that anything has changed.
At least African Guyanese gave the AFC a chance while Indian Guyanese turned out en masse to the poll to return an incompetent administration to power.
Power shatring seems to be the nation’s only chance at achieving democracy.
If this government is so great,why is everybody running to foreign shores? Nobody runs from good. For the past 42 years Guyana has deterioated both socially and economically that it has become the laughing stock of the Caribbean and I can’t blame them, for given a country with such rich natural resources = gold ,diamond,bauxite, timber, etc,to be in it’s present state baffles the imagination,Guyana should have been tops in this region and not bring on the “eyepass”that Guyanese are experiencing abroad and it all boils down to gross mismanagement of the economy by the two administrations,both past and present.The solution to this long standing crisis,I think, is to invite foreign investors and let them come and see the prospects and negotiate deals that would favour my beloved country.The stark fact is Guyana needs help, and needs help badly and the government should get off the high horse and ask for it.
Even the “Great” America is doing so at present with bail outs etc.Read the papers, Jagdeo.
What is Democracy?
i. Democracy = (n) a form of government where the power is retained by the people.
ii. Democrat = (n) a person who advocates democracy, one who believes in government in which all people have a vote.
iii. Democratic Party = (n) a U.S. political party that grew out of the Rupublician-Democratic Party led by Thomas Jefferson.
(A student’s Dictionary & Gazetteer, 8th edition -(c) 2005, The Dictionary Project, Inc. Sullivan’s Island, Sc 29782)
Circle the one that fits Guyana = i.; ii; iii; non of the above (?)
Macushi, well said. Couldn’t be said better. Hope the PPP is reading so they can see that they are not democratic. The opposite of democracy is dictatorship.