Dear Editor,
I want to personally congratulate Mr David Granger and Mr Donald Ramotar on their elevation as the respective candidates of the PNC and PPP. Our candidate in the Alliance for Change (AFC), Mr Prakash Ramjattan is on a path of engaging them on the issues and hopefully they will follow his lead in charting a better course for Guyana.
The desire for freedom and true democracy in Guyana today has rarely been clearer, save and except for the period in the run-up to 1992. In village after village throughout Guyana, we in the AFC have met people who are now willing to risk everything to ensure that we finally see the back of the PNC and the PPP as leading organisations. Note must be made that there are some good people still in the PNC (Clarissa Riehl easily comes to mind) and PPP (Navin Chandarpal easily comes to mind) as individuals, and they are vital for the democratic accountability that Guyana deserves, so this letter in no shape and form is condemning all of the people from the PNC and the PPP. However it is designed for those power-brokers who are bent on using unethical methods to foist the status quo on the people for another 5 years.
It has been a long time, maybe since the Father Darke and the Rodney days, when Guyana witnessed such abuses of the rule of law and disrespect for basic human rights. If there is no other reason (believe you me there are many other reasons from corruption to abuse of constitutional offices to construction of mansions), Guyana must change the way we govern ourselves. But elections alone are not good enough. For clarity, elections are the essential root of democracy, but for a democratic government to be credible, we need to set higher standards of good governance before, during and after elections. This is clearly one of the core failings of the PPP since they have allowed the Jagdeo cabal to overpower them and thus set themselves up to reap the associated reputational dis-benefits. This is a stain that Donald Ramotar will have to live with as the PPP candidate.
Guyana is a country where opposition parties like the AFC are not free to organize and campaign without fear, since it is clear that all our actions are now under surveillance from the state intelligence agency. This is unfortunate since the PPP already has the financial advantage of using their so called Ministry of Local Government / Office of the President (similar to the PNC’s Ministry of National Mobilisation) to funnel state resources to their campaign (see latest trip of the presidential candidate of the PPP to Matthews Ridge on a government funded flight).
Thus in Guyana the political playing field is very bumpy and most of the state benefits are skewed towards the PPP. This brings me to the conclusion:- Is the Guyana Elections Commission and its key commissioners, especially Dr Surujbally safe? Would the voters in the upcoming elections be made to feel safe and can they trust the integrity of the ballot? And when the votes are counted, will the PPP accept the results?
This upcoming election is shaping up to be not the causa belli but the casus belli — not the cause, but the occasion for the PPP reaction to the people. Thus the international community especially the USA, Canada, the EU, the BRIC countries and Caricom has a duty to protect the Guyanese people from the PPP. We the people continue to see many cases where the people’s civil and human rights continue to be violated at the hands of agents of the ruling group. Funds must flow to the domestic elections observers like the Elections Assistance Bureau, the religious organisations, the private sector bodies and the trade union movement to empower them as the forces of reason that will prevent the PPP from taking advantage of the people before, during and immediately after the elections.
The PPP has clearly demonstrated that they are comfortable in opening up old ethnic wounds like the 1973 elections/Granger issue which is a clear message to the Indo-Guyanese population, do not vote issues, vote race, vote for your own, Apan Jhat. They are also comfortable accusing the AFC leaders of all type of lies from drug pushing to bribe-taking to attacking Ms Sheila Holder in her personal capacity after she exposed the phantom pensioners on the pension register. The PPP have clearly shown with its blogs that it will stop at nothing in their effort to suppress the truth. Their primary focus is to justify their hold on power regardless of the view of the voters and they will do whatever it takes.
These acts by the PPP are a cause for deep concern as the political atmosphere continues to deteriorate rapidly. Caricom must take a front seat to lead in the dialogue to stop the Guyanese ruling cabal from confusing personal interests with those of the nation. Thos preparatory talks have to start now.
Guyana continues on the path of ‘winner takes all,’ which has been the source of our societal destruction for the last 45 years. Now is the time for the international community especially Caricom and the USA to stand firmly in stopping the degradation of our democratic potential. Short-term political expediency cannot be allowed to overshadow longer term impact on ethnic security, national development and human rights. No the PPP must not be allowed to increase the risk of ethnic tension by allowing corruption, intimidation and fraud to go unchecked, rotting the entire political system from within.
The bravery of the pro-democratic forces in Guyana reminds us of what is at stake. It would be a terrible betrayal if their hopes were denied by allowing the PPP to continue the political intimidation, character assassination, political abuse that has now characterized their political actions. It is time for more voices in the private sector community, the religious community, the trade union movement to stand up, like they did in 1989, to guarantee the restoration of democracy as we saw in 1992. Thanks to Dr Yesu Persaud and Mr Christopher Ram; they have done their duty to the nation.
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh
