Dear Editor,
This election will be about ‘issues,’ we are told. Issues like ‘garbage.’ Currently the city council blames the government; the government blames the city council. Both are dominated by the two major parties, one on each side. The issue is garbage is not being collected.
Garbage encourages rats; rats can cause major outbreaks of disease. The citizens of Georgetown suffer, no matter which party they support. It would appear the parties only choose to look out for their own selfish interest and cannot act as statesmen for the good of Guyana.
This view is further enforced by the action of the two major parties when they got together in 2007 to pass the recall bill. The effect of this bill is to remove from Parliament the authority to make a decision and place this authority in the hands of a small group which dominates the party’s executive. This view gained confirmation when a senior political figure, a man of good conscience, confirmed that he did not wish to support a certain pension bill when put to the vote, but did so as it meant he would have been recalled from Parliament as his party supported the pension bill. This has nothing to do with the rights or wrongs of the ‘pension,‘ but illustrates the fact that Parliament does not make decisions. Yet a real Parliament is the sovereign authority.
The major political parties spin is that a parliamentarian is appointed from the parties‘ list, and as such the party is elected not the individual, hence the Parliament must do as instructed by the party. How did this come about?
Originally when proportional representation was introduced the parties put forward a list of candidates which was a closed list. This meant that the parliamentarians were chosen from the list as they appeared upon it. This was changed to being chosen from any place on the list, so even if a party had high-profile members of the community on their list there was no guarantee such persons would be appointed to the Parliament. But still each parliamentarian could choose to vote as his conscience dictated. He could be expelled from the ‘party‘ but still remain in Parliament.
This is an important reality, as it meant the Parliament still retained its sovereignty. An administration, if it became corrupt, or even disregarded the rules governing accountability, could be voted out of office by a no confidence motion. The Parliament still retained sovereign power.
In 2007 by the simple act of passing the recall bill, which required the two major parties to work together getting a two-thirds majority, these parties removed sovereignty from the Parliament and thus from the Guyanese voters and gave it to themselves . .
Whatever spin (ie, Nancy story) the parties put out, the fact is ours is now a sham Parliament.
This election may be the last time Guyana has a chance to regain its control over its Parliament and its politicians; your single vote can make this happen. Then, maybe, the garbage will be cleaned up.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
