Henry Jeffrey

Last week’s column showed how similar our constitution is to that of the United States of America when it comes to the power relations between the institutions that we call “supreme organs of democratic power” (in my view this phrase is nothing but archaic socialist hyperbole).

In his presentation to the last biannual congress of the AFC, Chairperson Mr.

“…. APNU and the AFC should lead a movement aimed at making significant constitutional changes …..

“Questioned on if he would seek to advocate the punishment of those who committed alleged wrongdoings during the PPP elected period, an animated Granger… said ‘Of course!

A chief characteristic of globalization is time-space compression, one expression of which is a generalized CNN effect, namely the capacity of news media, nationally or internationally, to report in real time and pressure policy makers to make quick decisions in a particular direction.

Delivering his contribution to a PPP congress about a decade ago, Mr.

Not so long ago, the PPP envisaged mayhem if the PNC was out of the National Assembly, but it now feels sufficiently confident to chase them out of that chamber.

Born in questionable democratic circumstances in 1992 but with seemingly reckless abandon since the 2011 national and regional elections, the PPP/C regime has proceeded to dangerously reduce the scope of its legitimacy to a point where many more people now believe it to be an illegitimate government.

What is taking place in Fiji should alert Guyanese to pay greater attention to the natural structure of their political context.

“The real question is whether Fiji could handle a genuine democracy with a free press, or if the country needs an ultra-authoritarian strongman like Bainimarama to keep control.

The Guyana Police Force cannot seriously believe that by publishing piece-meal quarterly statistics it is proving anything.

Perhaps because he was a lawyer, when President Forbes Burnham was suspected of using all kinds of machinations, including peoples’ tax records, to gain their compliance, he loved to – improperly I believe – import the clean hands doctrine into politics: he who sought to criticize and challenge him or the state must come with clean hands.

It is good that more people, including letter writers and bloggers, are demanding that those who are calling for the formation of a national unity government give more details of what it is they intend.

It appears that circumstances have finally got the better of Mr David Granger and pushed him towards radical action.

“[P]ublic arguments over policy often reflect the instinctive worldviews of the antagonists rather than honest dialogue to find the best possible solutions” (“What really happened in Bangladesh”, Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2014) Nowhere is this clearer than in the present discourse about constitutional reform.

“You choose a member, indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament” (Edmund Burke – 1777 – Letter To The Sheriffs Of Bristol).

The general direction of my last two columns has been that as things stand, the most likely outcome of the coming general election – whenever it happens and if the major political parties go to the polls individually – is that the PPP/C will obtain sufficient votes to be returned to government, i.e.

Forbes Burnham did not become an autocrat after he ascended to the presidency of Guyana.

From all indications we will soon have national and regional elections, and all those who wish to see Guyana actually fulfilling its potential rather than its resources being drained away to far off places (the Bai Shan Lin affair) for the benefit of others, must now concentrate all their efforts on developing a strategy that would relieve the PPP/C of government at the next elections.

The PNCR congress has come and gone, but the major issues that faced the party, some of which arose at the congress itself, will have repercussions for years to come.