Dear Editor,
Much has been said about the no-confidence motion that led to the “collapse” of the APNU+AFC coalition government and I wish not to reiterate that information here other than to share two views. The first view is that the no-confidence motion was determined through Parliamentary procedures which have now become a legal binding document. To repeat, the coalition government has fallen and everything else is peripheral to this reality. Of course, the myriad opinions that have emerged to challenge the validity of the no-confidence motion should be allowed but the public should understand that they are merely comic sideshows. The time has come now for the government to resign and take up its function as a caretaker government as enshrined in the constitution. To take another position might very well lead to instability and chaos. However and whatever position the government takes, the fundamental point is that the government has fallen through legal and lawful means and should carry out governmental duties accordingly such as paving the way for a general election within 90 days from December 21, 2018. There should not be any deviation from the interpretations of this reality as well as the rights of Guyanese citizenship. The constitution is there for Guyanese to have a say and not to be divided or suppressed by some bizarre and twisted explanations of the no-confidence motion. Even if the government takes the ruling of no-confidence motion to court in two weeks, two months or longer, it has to by law or at least to democratic norms resign and hold elections.
The second view is that the APNU+AFC coalition has over the past three years taken an increasingly anti-democratic posture and pattern and the most obvious is the unilateral choosing of the GECOM chairman by the President and the now flip-flop position on the successful no-confidence motion with the obvious preference to reverse it to suit its desperate needs. Given the coalition’s anti-democratic tendencies, one cannot help but ask if the APNU+AFC coalition would accept the result of the general election in early 2019 or in mid-2020. Right now, the coalition is holding on to power like a hungry alligator holding to a small fish in a large pond.
Yours faithfully,
Lomarsh Roopnarine
