Opposition warns of dictatorship

- calls for unified front to restore parliamentary democracy

Hours after President Donald Ramotar issued the proclamation to prorogue the Parliament, the opposition parties declared that democracy was under threat and warned of the country sliding into a state of dictatorship.

Both the main opposition APNU and the AFC called on President Ramotar to reconsider his decision, while urging citizens not to take the decision sitting down.

By issuing the proclamation, President Ramotar won his government a reprieve from the passage of a no-confidence against it in the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which would have effectively forced its collapse and the holding of new general elections in three months. However, with this latest move, the President can continue to govern—albeit without the input of the legislative arm of the government—and may, as some have hinted, prorogue again after reconvening the Assembly and buying some more time for his presidency. Ramotar, however, yesterday said if attempts at dialogue with the opposition fail during the prorogation period, which could last as much as six months, he would move for general elections.

At what was described yesterday as a “meeting” in the parliamentary chambers, none of the opposition speakers indicated what the future holds following the prorogation but they all put the government on notice that dictatorship would not be allowed.

AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday threw cold water on President Ramotar’s overture for dialogue between government and the opposition during the prorogation, saying his party would only engage after Parliament is reconvened.

Opposition Leader David Granger, while not touching on the engagement, made it clear that APNU would not accept dictatorship or be intimidated.

“APNU will not accept this denial of democracy and will not be intimidated by the PPP/C’s dictatorial behaviour,” he told his parliamentary colleagues.

He warned that APNU is resolved to resist the President’s proclamation and called on all of Guyana, including the religious community, to join in a civil movement for the restoration of parliamentary democracy “by peacefully resisting the PPP/C’s resort to dictatorship” and to call for the revocation of the proclamation.

Prior to Parliament being prorogued, Granger had stated on Sunday that “We can’t engage with a gun at our heads. This National Assembly is a forum for national debate. It’s the voice of the people. I can’t see how he can prorogue the Parliament and expect us to have any discussions under duress. The place for discussions is in the National Assembly. If he shuts it down, he shuts down discussion, he shuts down dialogue,” he declared.

APNU’s chief financial spokesperson Carl Greenidge yesterday also put the administration on notice that the opposition would “re-open” any agreements it entered during the prorogation period.

“Let the international agencies and the foreigners and responsible corporate entities based in Guyana know that they are in the presence of a pariah of a government and as for as long as the government has that status any agreement the government signed with them would be re-opened by us,” he warned.

All the opposition Members of Parliament were present yesterday facing the empty chairs of their government colleagues and during the just over one hour meeting they thumped their desks and raised their voices in support of their colleagues who made speeches. The audience also included quite a few members of the public who were present, while even a larger number of mostly APNU supporters—decked out in the partnership’s signature green—gathered outside. Parlia-mentarians from both parties later met with them to explain what would have happened yesterday.

 

‘Long and arduous’

Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman, who sat next to Clerk Sherlock Isaacs instead of in his chair, described Guyana’s as the most interesting Parliament in the region and added that yesterday’s move by the executive has upgraded it into the most interesting Parliament in the world.

“It has been a long and arduous road that brought us here, a road filled with features of impediments, imperfections, imponderables and even incidents at times. Along the way, we have slipped and slid, moving from the sublime to the ridiculous and even from scandals to threats,” Trotman said.

He revealed that it was minutes before 9 am yesterday that he received a call from Isaacs, who indicated that he received an envelope from the Office of the President, which was later revealed to contain the proclamation to prorogue. Sometime after, a copy of the extraordinary gazette needed to make it official was also received by the Parliament Office.

“The effect of this is that we cannot proceed with the sitting that was scheduled for today. This is most unfortunate…this is also in my opinion most undemocratic,” Trotman said to desk thumping from the opposition members.

He said that the “illegality” is compounded by the fact that no certain date has been given for the restoration of normality, which is “even more distasteful” than the suspension of the country’s constitution in the 1950s.

“Most distasteful because the difference between then and now is that then it was done by the mother country, now it is being done by our own,” Trotman qualified.

He described yesterday as a “most momentous day,” stating that however it unfolds and whatever direction it takes “it is historic.”

“It presents for Guyana a crucible, something transformational, our democracy would enter into a new audit, becoming, in a matter of speaking, in a different stellar system. We would no longer be seen as another Parliament, like most others around us, but we would join the ranks of those who would have passed fire and turmoil,” he said.

He added that this new period would take the country in another direction and whether “we hurtle in a direction of certain destruction or of new beginning depends on each and every one of us present here today and those who would have been given the opportunity and the privilege to be part of the decision making apparatus for our dear state of Guyana.”

He said the National Assembly remains ready, willing and able to discharge its mandate as the legislative arm of the two-tiered Parliament of the country.

 

‘Darkest day’

Granger said the prorogation was the “darkest day for democracy in Guyana,” while noting that the partnership is enraged by the president’s action, which effectively paralysed the parliamentary process and “smothered the voices of people’s legitimate representatives in the National Assembly.”

“It is an affront to the Guyanese people who, three years ago, in November, 2011, voted for A Partnership For National Unity and the Alliance for Change to have the majority of seats in the National Assembly,” he stated.

For him, President Ramotar has “single handedly engineered a constitutional crisis.”

The proroguing of Parliament, Granger suggested, is just a way to allow the government to avoid parliamentary scrutiny while attempting to prevent debate on the opposition no-confidence motion; prevent the holding of local government elections; prevent debate on financial excesses and impropriety; protect the reputations of ministers from parliamentary sanction; permit the PPP’s campaign for general and regional elections to proceed; and permit the continued expenditure of state funds without parliamentary scrutiny.

“The President’s proclamation to prorogue Parliament is a challenge to the entire nation. He has no grounds for his crude smothering of parliamentary independence,” the opposition leader charged.

Ramjattan called for the country to be united on all fronts, while stating that yesterday’s action by the government is going to ensure unity of the opposition and ensuring that the PPP/C would be displaced when the next elections come.

“What the PPP has done here today is evil and they are not going to get the cooperation of at least of the Alliance for Change until such time that they reconvene Parliament; then we are going to proceed with any engagement with them,” he declared.

He said the government is playing with violence and wants to provoke violence but “we are smarter than them, they know that that road has always led to them circling the wagon and ensuring victory for them.” He said it would not work since this time as the opposition parties have been doing their work and know the people “done with PPP.”

He described the prorogation as irresponsible by those who were “pro-democracy yesterday” but are “pro-rogues” today.

Ramjattan warned that what the country is being led into “could be terrible, could be horrific,” before adding that the government by taking away parliamentary scrutiny is “playing with fire.”

He said the AFC has the interest of the country first, which is not true for President Ramotar, who has claimed the same.

AFC parliamentarian Moses Nagamootoo, who would have been the mover of the no-confidence motion, described the motion as a cricket bouncer from which President Ramotar “ducked.”

He said that the government saw the motion as a “potent people weapon” to be able to bring to account recalcitrant government that had violated the constitution.

“We wanted… that there should be a government that is responsible, that is accountable, that spends the people’s money in conformity with the constitution; that this National Assembly shall approve of the expenditure… a National Assembly that has been critical and that has held the government to scrutiny,” he said.

He noted that it was Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh’s defiance to spend over $4 billion that was not approved by the National Assembly which would have in fact triggered the no-confidence motion.

“But before that the government had been served notice of its illegality,” he said, pointing out that a complaint had been lodged with the Commissioner of Police that the Ministry of Finance had committed a criminal action that should be investigated.

Greenidge had also moved a motion for Singh to be brought before the privileges committee of the National Assembly.

According to Nagamootoo, the opposition had acted responsibly and the way democrats around the world ought to respond. He also said the AFC had made overtures to the government to have negotiations as responsible parliamentarians do and not to use “prorogation as a dagger on our throats and ask us to negotiate while there is a threat to democracy.

“We cannot submit to this bullyism and state terrorism upon the National Assembly elected by the people.”

Nagamootoo said the opposition wanted to save taxpayers’ money and save the country’s debt from spiraling with the loans being allocated for projects all without the oversight of the Public Procurement Commission.

He promised that the prorogation would not deter the opposition from returning with the motion whenever Parliament reconvenes to make sure justice is done, while noting the route set out under the constitution “to have a peaceful change of government or a peaceful process by which a government can resign and we could go back polls and we could renew our mandate from the people.”

 

‘Coup by the executive’

Meanwhile, Greenidge described the prorogation process as a “coup” by the government.

“Today we find ourselves in a situation where an executive, faced with a series of scandals… each of which would have brought down a government in any democratic state… [but] today in a cowardly bid… to avoid the heat that is the result of their misdemeanours the government has sought to use powers within the constitution to deny this House the ability to exercise the sanctions, which the constitution have enshrined for the legislature,” he said.

He charged that all of the motions should be returned to the National Assembly whenever Parliament sits again, while accusing the government of trying to buy time “…to continue to fill the pockets of their associates and colleagues.” He said the situation has cast an undesirable dark shadow over the nation and added that the opposition demands it rights and respect for the constitution.

Deputy Speaker Basil Williams pointed out that while the present constitution has been criticised as dictatorial, all five of the PPP/C’s presidents have been “hugging and embracing this constitution that they have reviled so much in the past.”

He pointed out that it is the first time the constitution is being used to create a dictatorship, noting that it is a minority government that is embarking for the next six months on one-party rule. He said the government has shut out the opposition majority of all the Guyanese people who voted against the PPP/C, while questioning what is going to happen within the next six months without any scrutiny.

“Only we could prevent it, only the representatives of the people and the people themselves could prevent what could happen if the government is going to be allowed to remain six months in power without the supervision of the majority of the Guyanese people in parliament,” Williams said.

He said the PPP is afraid to go to the polls as they know they would not be successful since they would suffer the “licks of Lisbon.”