Dear Editor,
The People’s Progressive Party, the organization, is a sordid one. The way in which decisions are made and executed is quite phenomenal. When grown people who have a modicum of sense are placed in a position to argue that a Dunstan Barrow is more suited, has more professional weight and academic qualifications than a Christopher Ram and a Dr. Vince Adams to sit on the Board of Directors of the Natural Resource Fund we must recognize as a society that we are now in a very diabolical governance system. That Ms. Vindhya Persaud who presents and attempts to espouse a presence of peace, goodwill and fairness had no choice but to argue that the Opposition should not have at least one individual of their choice on the Board of Directors further emphasizes not only the diabolical but also the duplicitous nature of the beast called the PPP. Diabolical because nothing has to be logical or flow from any modicum of reason or sanity. Everything is or becomes because one person in the PPP has ordered it so. We all know who that one person is. Duplicitous because they say all the right words when it suits their interest but act contrary to their own words when action is required.
Where does this paradigm, this way of operating, leave the rest of us who may or may not have voted for the PPP? Those who believe that governing and the foundation of the idea of governance is that those given the opportunity to govern are competent, reasonable and receptive and not inept, irrational and unsusceptible. We all get wrapped up in the flashy stuff, the roads, the parties, the ability to be in crowds and enjoy ourselves, the lawlessness, the ability to do as we please as long as we are not offending anyone of the elites because for that you must be punished. You see they will continue to shout from the rooftops that they saved democracy in 2020 but the test of democracy must be seen as the extent to which the institutions and practices contribute to less overreaching by the state; a broadening of the decision-making process to include sectors other than the elites; the development of rules of governance that militate against class, racial, ethnic, religions and other form of dominance; governmental accountability beyond elections; economic democracy whereby citizens are guaranteed equitable access to the national resources and; the expansion of civil rights and liberties and protection against governmental subversion.
Nothing that has been done between 2020 to now will convince any right-thinking Guyanese that we are on the right track where democracy is concerned. The country, our citizens and future generations deserve something better. Some-thing that reduces our fears and anxieties and allows all to feel that they have equal and equitable prospects in this dear land of ours.
Yours faithfully,
Tabitha Sarabo-Halley
