THE DAY I RESIGNED FROM THE PPP.


It was a Saturday morning, June 30, 2011, just over a year ago. I had gone to bed the night before at 7.30 pm, never so early as far as I remember. I opened one of the partially read books at my bedside but could barely concentrate. My wife, Janet, joined me at 9 pm, said nothing, went under the sheets and pretended to go to sleep. But I knew that sleep would not come to her as long as I was awake and in distress. I knew that during the night she would awaken about every hour and check if I was breathing. I turned off my night light at about 11 pm. She turned around, embraced me and I fell asleep.

I had come home unusually early the afternoon before from the Party Executive meeting. When I was about to leave home at midday for the meeting, Janet pleaded with me, as she often did in recent years, not to lose my temper. I had been on a short fuse for quite a while because of the increasing attacks to which I had been subjected at these meetings. Janet felt that an article I had recently written in which I said that there was pervasive corruption in Guyana might elicit some hostile comments. She feared that I might be tempted to respond.

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THE PPP HAS GROWN TIRED.


The long anticipated statement by the PPP in response to what I have
been writing is a disappointment. Instead of dealing with the issues
which I have highlighted, which are of great concern to the people of
Guyana and members and supporters of the PPP, it has chosen the well
worn path of personal abuse. The leadership of the PPP has lost its
will, its creative and dynamic impulses and the capacity of
constructive discourse. It is suffering from incumbency fatigue. It
has grown tired.

I am not the PPP’s problem. I am only the messenger. Since the PPP
chooses to attack the messenger, rather than deal with the message,
all the Guyanese electorate can look forward to in the future is more
of the political chaos that now prevails.

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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 was created in 1970) and Chief Justice, the Head of Government must ‘consult’ with the Leader of the Opposition. As everyone knows, these ‘consultations’ became a perfunctory farce during Burnham’s time in office but was somewhat mitigated during Hoyte’s tenure.

By the time the CRC was deliberating in 1999, the situation in relation to consultation had changed. The PPP/C had been in Government since 1992, and had begun to observe the provisions of the Constitution relating to consultation with the Opposition. However, during the deliberations in the CRC, members felt that in order to prevent a situation such as existed during the PNC’s terms of office from recurring, it was necessary to strengthen the language, and thereby the practice, about consultation. Thus wherever consultation was provided for in the Constitution, the word ‘meaningful’ was added so that the requirement became ‘meaningful consultation.’

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SN + KN + MN + RR + KR = 0


While the local television news was being read during last week, my attention was attracted to the announcement by the interviewee at a press conference to pay attention to the ‘algebraic’ equation about to be announced. The journalists were cautioned that they might not understand if they did not listen carefully. I listened and was baffled.

A few days after I was engaged in a court trial in which Messrs Khemraj Ramjattan and Nigel Hughes were on the opposite side. Moses Nagamootoo, while waiting his matter in another Court, came in to listen to the proceedings, as lawyers often do. During a pause I asked if they understood the ‘algebraic’ equation. They were all in  deep bafflement.

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GUYANA’S ECONOMY


Guyana’s economy has been the focus of attention over the past two weeks with the recent Investment Conference. In the keynote address by the President of the CDB, Dr. Warren Smith, Guyana’s economic progress was commended. Recent growth figures, though modest, have been a cause for optimism, especially since most countries in the region have been struggling. However, this must be assessed on the basis of the past. The economic problems triggered by mismanagement, corruption and the oil crisis from the early 1970s were only interrupted between the second half of the Hoyte years and the Jagan presidency when it showed some growth. Thereafter growth again slowed for nearly a decade and resumed about four years ago.

The economy bequeathed to us in 1966 consisted of the export of sugar, rice and bauxite. Over forty-five years later, in 2013, the economy consists essentially of the same features, exporting mainly sugar, rice, bauxite, forest products and gold. Bauxite exports have reduced substantially since the 1970s and sugar is struggling. Our exports have little or no value added. In other words, there has been no significant structural change in our export profile for nearly fifty years. While the buoyant prices for commodity and raw material exports and remittances have been the main reason for our economic performance over the past four years or so, the dangers of reliance on this model is palpable. The sharp and continuing drop in gold prices speaks to the dangers.

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