Conversation Tree

Stabroek News will forever be defined by its birth pangs from an authoritarian womb.

Local government elections are to be held on November 12th. With the polls, the never-ending stream of suspicions have emerged as the Government established new local government units and merged others.

Sex and politics intersected in an explosive controversy that has gripped the United States as Professor Christine Blasey Ford gave evidence last Thursday to the United States Senate about a sexual assault perpetrated against her in the summer of 1982 by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, on the US Supreme Court.

Of all the other Caricom countries, Guyana has enjoyed the closest relations with Trinidad and Tobago.

Ryan Crawford, whose middle name you will have to guess, is an attorney-at-law in practice in Berbice, and the son of the late Marcel Crawford, one of the Ancient County’s distinguished lawyers.

Those who advocate changes in the composition and method of selection of the members of the Elections Commission suffer from the ostrich syndrome.

Last Sunday, it was reported that a mother from Enmore on the East Coast had chased her three-year old son around the yard of their home and subsequently stabbed him several times.

Ivor Archie has been the Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago (TT) for ten years and is a prominent judicial personality in the Caribbean.

A report on the cost of food for each sitting of Parliament being $700,000 has triggered a particularly sharp debate about the cost and the alleged supply of alcohol.

The AFC declared on Monday last that it would be contesting the November 12 local government elections on its own.

An extensive debate is currently raging in the media on the Government’s lethargic approach in preparation for the oil industry.

It has long been recognized that the judiciary and its decisions are not and should not be immune from criticisms.

On Friday last, the New York Times (NYT) published a report, headlined ‘The $20 Billion Question for Guyana.’ It was a lengthy review of Guyana and the impact that the oil discovery by Exxon and its partners in its offshore Guyana venture is likely to have.

United States President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump paid an official visit to the UK on Thursday and Friday last week.

Charles Ramson (Jr) recently announced that he would seek the PPP’s nomination to be its presidential candidate for the 2020 general elections.

During the lifetimes of Cheddi Jagan and Janet Jagan, the PPP twice, unanimously, decided to support a two-term presidential limit.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, issued an invitation to President Granger to debate race, in the context of which political party in government has done more for African Guyanese.

The late Anthony Bourdain captured my attention and enraptured me several years ago by his brilliant storytelling.

It is with trepidation that I venture to write about an issue such as this, which invokes controversies from all sides.

I will stay away from the continuing controversies between the current and past Attorneys-General.

The total electoral devastation of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the political exit door shown to former Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, by the Barbados electorate at the elections last Thursday, is an apt and decisive answer to the vicious attack Stuart made on the Caribbean Court of Justice earlier in the week, when referring to the judges derogatorily as ‘politicians in robes.’ It is not unusual for politicians to be peeved by court decisions.

I am not a monarchist and neither is Jeremy Corbin, the leader of the Opposition Labour Party, and many other British people.

When I read the headlines in SN yesterday morning, ‘AFC says constitutional reform still a priority,’ I could not feel a sense of elation.

Neither Marx nor his contemporaries would ever have believed that his name would survive for 200 years.

The offence of misconduct in public office carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Tit for tat politics have arrived with a vengeance. The APNU+AFC police has charged PPP supporters and the PPP has struck back by charging APNU supporters.

On Wednesday last the public was treated to a brilliant and expansive lecture by the former Chancellor (ag) of the Judiciary and now Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence at the University of Guyana, Carl Singh.

At the event marking the 100th Birth Anniversary of Cheddi Jagan sponsored by the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, former President Bharrat Jagdeo expressed fears that the general elections due in 2020 will be rigged.

This article below was first published in June, 2014, in a different political era.

Divided societies like Guyana suffer from a phenomenon whereby historic events which, when they occur, give rise to allegations of ethnic bias, which never seem to go away.

At the invitation of the Chief Justice, Madame Roxane George-Wiltshire, I made the welcoming presentation on the occasion of the admission of four lawyers to the Inner Bar as Senior Counsel on Friday last.

With the production of 500,000 barrels a day for 300 days a year at US$40 a barrel, the annual income would be US$6 billion.

It is not known whether the post of Commissioner of Police, which has become vacant with the retirement of now former Commissioner, Seelall Persaud, will be advertised to facilitate applicants from Guyana and the Caribbean, or will be ‘selected.’ President Granger implemented that policy in relation to the posts of Chancellor and Chief Justice, for which he had argued forcefully as Leader of the Opposition.

February is African History Month originally designated to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas on February 12 and 14 respectively.

The basis of Guyana’s political outcomes has remained static for many decades. With deeply entrenched ethnic voting patterns, Indian Guyanese, originally constituting close to 50 per cent of the population, would always have the upper hand.

The power of the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) to refer the Guyana-Venezuela Border Controversy to the International Court of Justice (ICJ, also known as the World Court) and the jurisdiction of the ICJ to entertain and determine the matter, both provided for by the Geneva Agreement, have been shockingly distorted by Analyst in a February 6 article in Kaieteur News entitled ‘Recourse to the ICJ is on the basis of a consent regime.’ He argues that the ICJ needs Venezuela’s consent before it can exercise jurisdiction.

By Article IV(1) of the Geneva Agreement of 1966, the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela committed to choosing one of the means of peaceful settlement provided for by Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations (UN), if the Mixed Commission did not arrive at a full agreement for the settlement of the controversy within four years.

Bharrat Jagdeo’s incumbency as General Secretary of the PPP and Opposition Leader makes him the most authoritative figure within the PPP.

The Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown (city council) have voted overwhelmingly to support a renegotiated contract for the establishment of parking meters in certain parts of the city.

There are frequent, frustrated, refrains from observers that it is Guyana’s political parties that are mainly responsible for promoting the culture of ethnic dominance and without it, Guyana’s politics would not be dominated by race and instability.

The spectacular discoveries of oil in offshore Guyana, with promises of a glowing future, must be tempered with what that future really means and with the realities of today.

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.

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.” Sadly, by succumbing to the temptation of the politics of abuse, Mr Ramjattan exposes the inability of the AFC to answer serious questions about its political posture.

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