NO STATESMANLIKE DISCOURSE IS HEARD ABOVE THE DIN

President Ramotar has announced his intention to re-examine the Government’s future relationship with the Opposition after its refusal to support the anti money laundering amendment bill last Thursday in the National Assembly. It is believed that the  intention of the President is to further reduce the already limited contact between the two. But the reason […]

APNU MUST EMBRACE MORE THAN A ONE DIMENSIONAL VISION

The anti-money laundering bill (Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013 No. 12 of 2013) now before the National Assembly should have been tabled several years ago. Both this and the previous Governments were negligent in failing to do so in a timely manner. The Opposition has pointedly criticized this unwarranted […]

A CONSENSUAL MECHANISM

The Report of the Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC) dated July 17, 1997, recommended at clause 9.9.3.4. that the Chancellor and Chief Justice should be appointed through a ‘consensual mechanism.’ Both the Independence and the Burnham Constitutions had provided that for certain appointments, including the Chancellor (after the Court of Appeal and the post of Chancellor […]

VIRTUAL REALITY.

Guyana exists politically in a state of virtual reality. In the film The Matrix and in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, such realities were creatively and brilliantly portrayed.  The Government says to the Opposition, which has a majority in the National Assembly: You are obliged to pass my Budget but I’m not obliged to assent to […]

BUDGET BLUES

Formal exchanges of letters between the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, and the Shadow Minister of Finance, Mr. Carl Greenidge, seeking to fix a date for a meeting to discuss the proposed Budget, and the inevitable name calling when the exercise proved unsuccessful, ought to have alerted everyone that no serious discourse will take […]