Antonio Gramsci’s statement, meant for a different situation, accurately depicts Guyana’s political condition. He describes this period as ‘the interregnum’ in which ‘a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.’ Our symptoms are: squabbling over the Budget, voting a hospital down, failure of the tripartite talks, the Speaker overruling the Chief Justice, Government’s support for ‘shared […]
Tag Archives: governance
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 […]
THE SPEAKER’S DECISION CANNOT BE REVERSED.
The view of the Opposition that a Member of the National Assembly can be prevented from speaking is nothing but weird. This battle was fought in England hundreds of years ago and was settled in 1689. Guyana must be the first country which inherited the British Parliamentary system in which this issue had to be […]
REPAIRING GUYANA’S BROKEN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT
The debate about the most suitable form of government for Guyana has been ongoing since the 1970s and continues with vigour today. Ravi Dev wrote on the issue recently in the Kaieteur News and Henry Jeffrey made suggestions earlier this week in SN. After the 1973 elections, at which the PNC seized a two-third majority, […]
MINING ON AMERINDIAN LANDS
Now that the dust has settled and emotions have subsided, it might be a good time to dispassionately consider the meaning of the Court’s decision in the Isseneru Case which attracted some attention recently. To grasp its full significance and implications, we need to go back in time.