Dear Editor,
With good reasons, Guyanese are right to mostly ignore the Calls for Submissions by the PPP government on its various public laws and policies. Persons have focused on the short time to make submissions as the main complaint (for example, a mere two weeks for the new PSA and the draft Petroleum Activities Bill). But iceberg-like, the tight deadline is merely the tip of the government’s ploy to bury opposing views, stifle public debate, and promote its command-and-control agenda. Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP are not interested in anyone’s views on any of their draft laws and policies. To accept and concede to better arguments and ideas is not in the PPP’s DNA. The party fears that any display of intellectual honesty and open-mindedness on its part will undermine its hoped-for projection of authoritarian power.
Should the PPP government be serious about getting the public’s input on such national matters, let it so demonstrate by (apart from granting more time for submission): (i) publishing all submissions as they arrive on government websites and elsewhere so that all citizens can read for themselves, (ii) submit major executive actions (decisions not requiring parliamentary approval, such as multi-billion dollar gas deals) to the national assembly for enquiry, discussion, and input, (iii) adopt the practice of some advanced countries of explaining where a proposed bill or policy directly promotes inclusivity, transparency, accountability, gender equity, environmental security, government efficiency, etc., and (iv) curbing its impulses of automatically rejecting the views of those outside its circle of cronies.
The PPP will do none of the above. It is therefore very sensible for the opposition parties, the news media, and individuals (such as columnists) to share their views in the open marketplace of ideas. All citizens can therefore be enlightened and voice their own opinions in a more informed manner.
The calls by Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP for direct submissions to the government are therefore a blatant political ruse to muzzle public debate, suppress the democratic process, and further their dangerous push for political domination.
Respectfully,
Sherwood Lowe
