Stabroek News has invited the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change to submit a weekly column on local government and related matters. The PPP/C has declined the offer. Only APNU has submitted a column this week.
Donald Ramotar’s mother reportedly gave him good advice when she told him that “you cannot have it in cake and have it in bake.” That the lesson has clearly been lost on her son is no fault of Mrs Ramotar; her offspring who today holds the exalted office of President of the Republic, behaves like an absent-minded and forgetful child.
Donald Ramotar wishes to wield the enormous powers that inhere in the Presidency. These powers and privileges are derived from the Constitution but, at the same time, deny local democratic organs (LDOs) the right to exercise their constitutional authority.
Ramotar is yet to appreciate that enjoying the privileges of high office comes with responsibilities and obligations. Ramotar, as the Head of State, has to understand that his principal responsibility is to uphold the Constitution and laws of Guyana; he does not have the prerogative to deny the people their constitutional right to local democracy.
Ramotar, in choosing to deliberately defy constitutional provisions that dictate the periodic holding of local government elections, has crossed a dangerous line between democracy and dictatorship. Ramotar’s conduct leaves him wide open for impeachment. He would have long since been impeached in any functioning democracy.
President Ramotar, in brazenly flouting the constitution, has plunged the country into a deep constitutional crisis. The Guyanese nation and its citizens have been deprived of their right to have local democracy for no valid reason. It is not too late, however, for Donald Ramotar to learn another lesson, which is that one simply cannot have one’s cake and eat it too.
Mr. Ramotar must come to his senses. He must: implement the resolution of the National Assembly and announce the date for local government elections to be held countrywide; initiate a process by which the Local Government (Amendment) Act could be returned for his assent and issue the ‘Commencement Order’ to operationalize the Local Government Commission.
President Ramotar, in an interview at his office and reported by GINA on July 23, 2013, said that the Government is prepared to make compromises especially with regard to the establishment of the Local Government Commission, which he said the Opposition is trying to use to minimize the role of the Local Government Ministry. He once again reveals his ignorance of constitutional arrangements.
The new system of local government which came into being as a result of the 1980 constitution and subsequent Act 12 of 1980 saw the creation of 10 administrative regions for the purposes of local government. Subsequently, sub-divisions, namely municipalities and neighbourhoods were created for the same purpose. A link was at the time created between local and central government to ensure proper co-ordination and harmonization of efforts. This link was the new constitutional organs or the National Congress of Local Democratic Organs (NCLDO) and the Supreme Congress of the People.
The stated intention of the architects of the 1980 constitution and of the new local government system was that LDOs were “not to be subordinate to a Ministry.” It was further stated that any such arrangement that allowed for a Ministry (Local Government) would only serve to inhibit the authority and autonomy of LDOs and that this was no longer desired. The relationship was now to be a symbiotic one, or in the words of the State Paper, in which each system supports and enriches the other.
The Local Government Commission was established to fill the void created by the abolition of the NCLDO and the Supreme Congress of the People after revisions were made to the constitution in 2001 and 2002. The Commission, however, was meant to perform the very functions of ensuring that there be a relationship of equality between central and local government.
Ramotar, now President, is inventing his own interpretation of the constitution; his cavalier approach to governance whereby he shirks his responsibility to uphold the constitution, is fraught with danger. The losers in this game of ‘constitutional Russian roulette’ that he is playing and that his ministers are executing are the citizens who are forced to live in broken communities as a result of the near-total collapse of the local government system.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration must not think that it will be allowed to ride roughshod over the people’s rights. It must understand that it will pay a heavy price for its arrogance and deep desire to control all areas of national life. It must mend its errant ways and respect the population, people’s rights and the constitution. It should start doing so now.
A Partnership for National Unity will not relent in struggling to ensure that constitutional provisions regarding local government and local democracy are honoured. In this regard, the people have to be given the power to design the systems and determine the services that affect their everyday lives.
Down with PPPC dictatorship. Vote APNU for local empowerment.
