Dear Editor,
I have stopped listening to President Granger’s speeches to Parliament. They are meaningless. His actual deeds, or rather the opposite of same, speak volumes to this nation and the world, many of whom are not interested in listening for other reasons.
I read Ralph Ramkarran’s column in the last Sunday Stabroek in which he noted the absence of any mention of constitutional reform in the President’s speech to Parliament. Ramkarran was correct in stating what the AFC can do to correct this failure on this government. I don’t have any faith the AFC will do this since I am truly disgusted in Nagamootoo and Ramjattan. The AFC is even more unlikely to go against the PNCR since the AFC is now led by a PNCR diehard Raphael Trotman.
The reason for writing this letter is to state that we must have constitutional reform. We saw what happened when the PPP/C won the largest amount of seats and votes in 2011, formed the government but the joint opposition controlled the House. The PNCR used the AFC to change this in 2015. In 2020 and beyond the situation will be worse than 2011. We may have a situation where there are two or more smaller parties in the National Assembly that may choose to side with the opposition very early to bring a no confidence vote against the party in government and force new elections. This is likely to happen much faster than 3 and half years since the combined opposition can like hold 40 seats and not just 33 seats. We need a new intermediary constitution that focuses on the following immediately:
1. Reduce the powers of the President and make the Prime Minister position the head of government
2. Have a fixed date for elections every five years.
3. Allow the parties in the House to form the government post-election based on ability to form a coalition. It is likely that the governing party can change over the five years term.
I am hopeful that there are enough Guyanese who think like me and do not see either the PPP/C or PNCR as an answer to their problems. I am hopeful there are enough of us that see that neither of the two parties are good for Guyana. That Guyanese see that both Jagdeo and Granger and their lieutenants lack leadership abilities and vision to lead even a single infrastructure construction project much so an entire nation.
Yours faithfully,
Harrish Singh
