Dear Editor,
On reading Christopher Ram’s letter in the Sunday Stabroek (‘It’s a misconception…’ March 5) on Article 161 (2) of the constitution in relation to the eligibility criteria for the Gecom chairmanship and the meaning of the words, “any other fit and proper person,” the idea came to me to pen this letter. The debate on what “any other fit and proper person” means symbolizes how deeply entrenched political loyalties are in this land. But most of all, it is instructive on how the authoritarian garden becomes fertilized.
People laugh at this country, notably our Caribbean neighbours. The West Indian intellectual’s disdain for Guyana must have deepened when they see how we cannot understand simple words in Guyana. The leaders in government were insulted by Mr Jagdeo when he submitted a list of plain non-starters, minus Messrs Ram and Latchmansingh, to be the next Chairman of Gecom. The government fought back and tried to play hardball with Jagdeo. It said Article 161 (2) meant that only a judge or someone with qualifications to be a judge could be the Gecom Chairman. The government was playing politics here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
What is wrong, reprehensible, immoral, deceitful, dangerous and completely unacceptable is educated people who in support of the government or out of their justified dislike for the PPP are barefaced enough to tell the world that “any other fit and proper person” also means a judge. This is where the authoritarian leverage of the leader is widened and authoritarianism begins to grow. This is the lesson humans should learn from history. It is when the dictatorial path finds support from the educated mind in the society, that leaders grow bolder in their excesses. This is how dictatorship becomes possible. The historical record is mountainous with examples.
Decent Germans who disliked the Jews embraced the abject nonsense Hitler was saying. Communists who hated capitalism supported the semi-literate outpourings of Stalin. That has been the story of the rise of modern authoritarian government. Trump became President because those who disliked the American non-white population endorsed the nonsense Trump believes in. A high school kid does not have to be a genius to understand the words of Article 161 (2). And these are so simple that it really calls into question the moral character of those who chose not to see the simplicity of the meaning. After stressing the qualities of a judge, it went on to state in language that was extremely ordinary that if you cannot find a judge, any other fit and proper person becomes eligible.
No educated person who walked into a university and earned a degree in the humanities or social sciences should find it hard to comprehend what that article in the constitution means. Let me close by saying I perfectly understand the government’s insistence that the words mean you must be a judge to be Gecom’s Chairman. It is their strategy of countering Jagdeo. But how can someone belittle their education by seeing a plate and calling it a cup just because they support the government of the day. This raging fiasco over what some straightforward words mean tells the story of an ongoing tragedy named Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
