Ralph Ramkarran

In the critical years of the 1970s and 1980s, three major issues engaged the attention of my political colleagues – restore democracy, advance social progress and avoid civil strife.

Since the retirement of Chancellor (ag) Carl Singh and Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang, the issue of their replacement has been at the forefront of discourse, at least privately, in legal circles, but occasionally in the media.

Since the victory of the APNU+AFC coalition in 2015, the colour of APNU, green, in which the President is often dressed, is being promoted everywhere.

There was a signing bonus. It was known but denied by several ministers of the government.

Minister Khemraj Ramjattan responded to my article last Sunday, entitled, ‘To preserve itself, the AFC must resign from the government,’  with the following epithets – “nonsensical”; “vacuous chatter”; “idiotic”; “we are not going to block [the] chatterati”; “foolish”; “Ralph kept his mouth shut then he got shelved now he is talking plenty”; “if he wants to be a politician he should go form a party then know what it is”; “these fellas love to talk from a distance like parrot, you know parrot telling donkey how to bat but stays up in the tree, they want to stay up in the tree and not do the batting themselves, you write exactly what I say there.”

Wracked by dissention and uncertainty, compounded by the dismissal of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, known by the nickname of ‘Crocodile’ which he embraces, the army on Wednesday occupied strategic points in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, and deposed President Robert Mugabe, aged 93 and in power for 37 years.

The Russian Revolution, referred to as the ‘Great October Socialist Revolution,’ took place one hundred years ago on November 7 (October 25 on the calendar in force in Russia at the time).

Political tensions in Guyana took a turn for the worse over the past two weeks.

Very little debate has taken place on the Petroleum Commission of Guyana Bill.

The Peoples’ Progressive Party went to extraordinary lengths over ten months to find eighteen Guyanese willing to agree to have their names submitted to the President of Guyana for consideration to be appointed to one of the most difficult, controversial and thankless of jobs ‒ Chair of the Elections Commission.

October 5 will forever be remembered in the history of Guyana as the date when a short-lived democracy was restored.

October 1953 The first election under universal adult suffrage was held in British Guiana on April 27, 1953.

For more than twenty years the task of choosing a chairperson of the Elections Commission (Gecom) was without controversy.

The drive for ethnic dominance is an unavoidable consequence of our social history.

Membership of our two main political parties does not necessarily imply that one is a racist or subscribes to an ethnic approach to politics.

The government is silently leaning the economy towards Burnham’s socialist control system, to cooperativism and poverty, where the sugar workers suffer and the private sector has no influence.

The stunning news, unprecedented in Africa’s history, broke on Friday morning that the Kenyan Supreme Court had overturned the results of the August 8 elections which the incumbent president, Uhuru Kenyatta, 55, had won with 54 per cent of the vote.

I adopt the sentiments of Lincoln Lewis, who writes frequently on constitutional matters.

Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) was a leading Bolshevik and the earliest champion of women’s rights under the new Soviet government.

The public has been gripped over the past few weeks by the evidence which has been emerging from the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the alleged plot to assassinate President David Granger.