Dear Editor,
I am a member of the Regional Democratic Council of Region 2 that is Pomeroon Supenaam. I was sworn in as a member on November1, 2006 after my name was extracted from a list of candidates of the Alliance for Change political party, that contested the national and regional elections on August 25, 2006.
Shortly after a letter was sent by the Regional Chairman Mr Ally Baksh to the leader of the party (AFC)to submit names of the party nominees to be members of the various standing committees of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Mr Khemraj Ramjattan, by way of a letter dated February 5, 2007 that was sent to Mr Ally Baksh had stated or indicated to him the AFC nominees and I was nominated to be a member of the agriculture and works and ghe local government committees. I attended each and every meeting, I was never late nor was I disrespectful to any member of the commit- tee.
On Thursday February 7, 2008 I went to the local government committee without a notice or invitation because there were instances where I did the same thing, and a day or two after the meeting I would be given the notice by hand and the person delivering same would try to explain why it was late. The standing order under Section 71 Municipal and District Council Act Chapter 28:01 Notice of Agenda states that failure to serve notice to any member of a Committee would not invalidate the meeting.
On entering the board-room I was told by the chairman of the committee Mr Pooran Persaud and the advisor of the committee Mr Devanand Ramdatt that I am no longer a member of the local government committee and I would not be allowed to sit at the meeting.
I objected strongly to the way this was done drawing to their attention my past experience with the notices and stating also that if a new list of members was put together the onus was with the Regional Chairman Mr Ally Baksh to inform the leadership of the party (AFC) and I as the party representative on the committee would have been so informed by them. I also told them that after the meeting is started I would make a statement and I would like same to be recorded in the minutes then I would leave.
The Regional Chairman Mr Ally Baksh came into the boardroom and told me that a new list was made out and my name was not on it and I must leave the room now.
I reminded him of his speech he made on the 1st November, 2006 as Regional Chairman in which he stated, and quite rightly so, that we must all work together in love, unity and in harmony. Then and only then our region would be able to develop and so would be our country. In his speech he had also stressed the importance of meaningful participation and consultation and I told him that he is now throwing all of that through the window.
I asked him also if he was comfortable with the People’s Progressive Party maintaining the same three persons on the committee, the People’s National Congress maintaining the same person on the committee while the representative of the AFC was taken off in the most unethical and unceremonious way. By this time three policemen the Regional Chairman had sent for came into the room and told me about the report that was made to them about my presence at the meeting and evicted me.
I was very embarrassed about the way I was treated, no courtesy was extended to me and the entire leadership of the AFC party. I can only see this as a clear attempt to marginalize me and the AFC and I think the chairman owes us an apology.
Yours faithfully,
Archie W Cordis
