Dear Editor,’
Today I learnt a new concept: You prorogue parliament to preserve the life of parliament. Let’s try this one more time: You prorogue to preserve. President Ramotar is taking his nation through a wild ride of constitutional phantasmogoria. Thank you President Ramotar for teaching the nation new ways of thinking about the art of governance and a whole new concept most of your subjects didn’t know before.
The definition of the word ‘politician’ is one who thinks in terms of personal self-aggrandizement, one who seeks every opportunity to milk the system. It is never about what is good for the state. Try convincing your dog that governing without a parliament for six months is good for the nation. Even the dog would feel insulted.
Try telling the dog: “that the time gained [from prorogation] would be used for the benefit of our people”. Even the dog would scoff at you. Try telling the dog further: ‘I perused the constitution and it gives me the power to rule for up to six months like a divine king. I weighed the constitutional options and I thought that’s great – that’s the way to go.’ By this time the dog may feel so dejected and powerless, it will stop barking.
Today is the Veteran’s Day holiday in New York. You want to read the SN and KN and drink your morning coffee slowly. A good way to relax.
Instead I wake only to discover that all the work I did in 1990-92 to restore democracy to my homeland, Guyana, is for nothing. It was all in vain. I weep for my beloved Guyana.
A few reflections:
(1) I can’t say I wasn’t warned about these events in Guyana today. BBC reporter Hugh Crosskill in 1990 had told me that the fight in Guyana is about one ethnic group fighting to replace another ethnic group in power. And once the others take power they will do the same things the first group did. Now 22 years later, Mr Ramotar is milking every advantage he can to stay in power for as long as he can. If this is constitutional democracy, then you may also call me a dog.
(2) Pretending there is a contract when there is none, you are legitimizing a non-existent contract – and you will pay the price for your foolishness. The constitution was promulgated into law through a fraudulent 1978 referendum. Yet the opposition went to parliament and accepted the constitution. They legitimized the constitution. In 2011, the opposition had the majority, yet they allowed a minority government to be sworn into office. This constitution which violated all the principles of Bagehot and Dicey should have been thrown into the dustbin of history in 2011.
I once heard of a book titled: Southern Dunces or a Nation of Dunces. I wonder if it is about Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
