Dear Editor,
We read from the Trinidad newspapers that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Tuesday night announced that she had dismissed her Minister of the People and Social Development, Dr Glen Ramadharsingh, following his disorderly conduct on board a Caribbean Airlines domestic flight from Tobago to Trinidad earlier this month.
She was also quoted as stating that “As I have always said, regardless of the consequences, I remain resolved to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. My decisions in the past demonstrate this consistency regardless of whether you are in my Cabinet or not. No one is exempt from the measure of value based leadership.”
Editor, in light of the allegation that is reported by our local press here regarding our incumbent Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh’s recent accident where it is alleged that he caused an accident and was under the influence of alcohol, would President Donald Ramotar ask him to demit office?
Mrs Persad-Bissessar is also reported to have said: “All my considerations are character driven. I hold no brief for any man or woman save the greater public interest. I am always aware of the higher expectation upon which this government was elected and the immense responsibility each of us has to uphold public trust in all we do every single day of our lives. It is not a responsibility we can choose to have one day and lose the next.”
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar who, since coming to office in May 2010, has removed from her cabinet more than seven ministers, said “no man, nor woman for that matter, has been allowed or will be permitted to deviate from the very principles upon which we were elected by the people into office.”
If President Ramotar wants justice and fair play in Guyana then he should take a page from the book of Mrs Persad-Bissesesar and not tolerate any nonsense behaviour, not even from his own minister.
The matter of causing an accident and alleged failure to render assistance by a minister in office is a very serious misdemeanour in the law of this country.
The President should also show by his action that no one is above the law.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
