Dear Editor,
Justice has delivered a sensible verdict to politicians who sought to manipulate common sense mathematics and the crystal clear language of our constitution for the purpose of avoiding the consequences of the no confidence motion. At what cost and from whose account was the spending on the bizarre sequence of legal events that led finally to a historic judgment by the CCJ. A Court which asked common sense questions as to why Guyana, with a population of less than a million could not always be in a state of readiness for elections. Now that the legal door is finally slammed in unrepentant faces, the concern is whether there would be manipulation of the election process for the continued good life in governance. This good life is the reason persons seek to retain political power by any means.
This unfortunate reality in many countries, points to flaws in the electoral systems for choosing persons to manage the affairs of the nation. Persons who lack managerial skills, who lack the ability for governance, who are not answerable to their permanent secretaries and administrative advisors and who seek power for selfish reason are chosen to govern. Eloquence, the ability to deceive and to make wild false promises appears to be the criteria for seeking votes. Unpopular and dictatorial governments are able to maintain their self-enrichment regimes by using physical force and intimidation by paid hoodlums. This has happened in Grenada, in Haiti and in our Guyana. This is happening in our neighbouring Venezuela. But times are changing and more accountability is taking place with a former president being jailed in our other neighbouring country of Brazil. We have a history in the Caribbean of politicians being imprisoned in Dominica and in Grenada.
We must strive for a system of fiscal responsibility where permanent secretaries are not connected politically to leadership and can control wanton waste of resources for private travel, accommodation and luxury living by the Ministers. A system of oversight so that a Minister or Prime Minister would not be able to override the decisions of Institutional Boards and Permanent Secretaries. We must have a system of good oversight by persons of integrity who are able to enforce accountability. For this to happen, the will of the people must be enabled for choosing the best government for Guyana. The critical goal now is to ensure that the process for electing a government working for the best interest of all Guyanese is a fair one. Once the voter’s list is finalized it should be opened to scrutiny. If GECOM has done a good job by its extremely costly house to house or whatever else they wish to do, then the final list should be a complete and correct list of voters. GECOM and the current leadership should be satisfied. This final purged and purified list should then be shared with our election observers from the OAS, CARICOM, and the Carter Center along with our own Transparency Institute Guyana Inc and other bodies approved by all political parties. The list will be checked by these bodies and in the unlikely event that a person is discovered who is ineligible to be on the list, the chairman and members of GECOM must be held accountable and answerable to law enforcement. Oversight is what ended years of dictatorship in Guyana. Oversight will ensure accountability for the elections and for good governance for our beloved Guyana and will reduce the possibility of political parties challenging the mathematics used for obtaining the final result.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Davendra Sharma
