Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Christopher Ram’s letter of February 14, 2009 in the Stabroek News, with the caption ‘Dr Misir should respond to the issues.’
First and foremost, I am glad that Mr Ram decided to lighten up.
Now allow me to say that I returned the Trinidadian Guardian because I already read that newspaper on the internet. I would like to inform Mr Ram that I work with a huge team and each member is a significant player of that team. Mr Ram seems to have a real ‘exaggerating streak.’ And I note with amusement his excursions into the sphere of razmataz.
I also note his obsession with the Bradford and Associates’ Report on the Integrity Commission. The cost of that or any study should not be a factor in the implementation of recommendations. In fact, the cost of the Bradford & Associates’ report, in this case, is irrelevant today.
In an effort to apprise Mr Ram on corruption in other parts of the world, let me say that President Clinton and other heads of state of the ‘free world,’ also express zero tolerance for corruption, but yet their countries do have corruption. And also, the fact that corruption continues to exist in those countries does not mean that those heads of state condone corruption; so in the same vein, not only in 1999 in Florida, but on several other occasions, President Jagdeo indicated that he would have zero tolerance towards corruption.
My comment that the Integrity Commission Act of 1997 was the law of the land, specifically pertained to its jurisdiction over the Integrity Commission; and this is what I said and meant. I made no allusion to the inferiority of the constitution; the Constitution of Guyana is the supreme law of the land.
I now address Mr Ram’s allegations of presidential violations of Article 170 of the constitution, regarding his powers on the presidential assent of bills passed by the National Assembly. I would refer him to Gail Teixeira’s response to this issue in the media in Stabroek News of September 21, 2008, where he can fully immerse himself in this particular matter. I would also like to refer the goodly gentlemen, with regard to the government’s purported violations of Article 216, to the Ministry of Finance’s pronouncement on this matter and then he would learn that there is no violation of Article 216. I hope he pays attention to these references.
Given that Mr Ram is anxious to know whether I played in the games on cane-burning, strike-breaking, election rigging via PPP versus PNC, he should know that I was not living in Guyana at that time. Perhaps, Mr Ram can give us some sense of his role during that period and in the sculpting of the PNC Manifesto.
This man excessively nitpicks on issues merely for the sake of nitpicking. And so, Mr Ram still needs to chill out even more; but let me not say ‘that he also should get a life.’
Yours faithfully,
Prem Misir
