Henry Jeffrey

So far we have considered the first and the second of the five economic and three political decisions in the chain that it was suggested must remain largely unbroken and be consistently implemented over decades if the natural resources of a country are to be effectively harnessed and transformational development result (Reversing the Resource Curse: How to Harness Natural Resource Wealth for Accelerated Development.

In attempting to develop a broad vision of where the oil and gas sector in Guyana is heading, last week (https://bit.ly/2Gue7ZD)

While preparing to make an intervention in a panel discussion on the future of the oil and gas sector in Guyana a few weeks ago, I came to realise that although I had been reading the almost daily commentaries, I must have missed it but I did not have a broad vision of where the sector is going.

Writer after writer and speaker after speaker have over decades been calling upon our politicians to, as the legendary businessman, Mr.

(Cultural day presentation to the Pan African Movement: Guyana) I thank the Pan African Movement of Guyana for inviting me to say a few words on the general theme: ‘In the footsteps of Kofi: referencing the Grenadian revolution of 13th March 1979’.

In the context of Guyana, last Friday’s decision by the Court of Appeal was not a surprise to me.

I am convinced that Guyanese on all sides of the current constitutional quarrel know that what is unfolding is an interactive pantomime largely being staged by the coalition government, which was caught off guard by the no-confidence vote but wants to hold on to government, and two main reasons are in the public domain as to why it wants so desperately to do so.

‘The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood.

‘When socio-economic, racial, or religious differences give rise to extreme partisanship in which societies sort themselves into political camps whose worldviews are not just different but mutually exclusive, toleration becomes harder to sustain.

‘My government has time and again expressed concerns over the investments made before the PPP/Civic took office.

The late eminent political theorist Samuel P Huntington claimed that, ‘Elections, open, free and fair, are the essence of democracy, the inescapable sine qua non’, and this is essentially what the PPP and its supporters have always had in mind.

A highly speculative contribution by Mr. Manzoor Nadir about two weeks ago provided an analysis in support of the PPP/C that is so surprisingly flawed that I hope that party has gone beyond this kind of thinking.

A few weeks ago, the Speaker of the National Assembly rejected the request by the APNU+AFC caretaker government that he should overturn the no-confidence vote that had gone against it some days before on the ludicrous grounds that 33 is half of 65 and that thus 34 is required for a majority.

Introduction For reasons explained over the last two weeks, I believe that Guyana is at present set upon a political trajectory that is unsustainable and dangerous.

Last week, I promised that this column ‘using practical examples, … will consider governance arrangements that are more appropriate to our conditions and that will conclusively and most equitably address the African political dilemma.’

Last week, the president and the leader of the opposition met, and contrary to what many had hoped for but what Guyana’s political legacy suggested was most improbable, they emerged from their hour-long meeting just as they went in – with only smiles!  

After Raphael Trotman, Khemraj Ramjattan and Sheila Holder crossed the floor from the PNCR, PPP/C and Working People’s Alliance respectively and formed the Alliance for Change in 2005, it did not take much to convince the two larger parties to collaborate on bringing legislation to prevent a recurrence of such events.

The membership of the Alliance for Change (AFC) best represents the political dysfunction it was established to fix: disillusioned PPP/C and PNCR supporters with different empathies and perhaps even different notions of right and wrong, and once the African PNCR hijacked the AFC those schisms diverged and ultimately clashed, and thus we have the case of Mr.

‘Control of the process yields control over outcomes. Skilled negotiators think hard about the impact of process on perceptions of interests and alternatives, on the part of their counterparts and those they represent, and on their own side.

A few weeks before the last local government elections, a longstanding Baronian friend with whom I use to roam the streets of London before he took off to film school and I to university, and whose late mother was born in Beterverwagting (BV), informed me that the family would prepare a plot of land it owns in the village and offer it to the BV/Triumph Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) for use as a small community park.