In an article published in SN on August 27 – “Whither Guyana: Autocracy or democracy?” Dr. Bertrand Ramcharan, a former senior UN official and regular contributor to SN, concludes that in Guyana there are “shades” of autocracy. The events that give rise to the “shades” are: “official inquisitions into the tax status of NGOs; calls […]
Author Archives: Ralph Ramkarran
POLITICS AND THE NATIONAL TOSHAOS’ CONFERENCE
The annual National Toshaos Conference took place during last week and was addressed by President Ali. In his address the President emphasised the contribution that his government has made to the development of Amerindian communities. He pointed to increased budget allocations, extensive distribution of land titles, direct allocation of increased earnings from carbon credit and […]
VENEZUELA UNDER INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
With very few exceptions, the entire Latin America, Caribbean and North America have now rejected the results of Venezuela’s elections held on 28 July. This was crystalized during last week when the Organisation of American States (OAS) adopted a resolution calling on the Venezuelan government to “expeditiously publish the presidential election records, including the voting […]
A REVIEW OF SHARED GOVERNANCE AND WHAT IT COULD LOOK LIKE
The phrases ‘shared’ governance’ and ‘winner-take-all’ were introduced into Guyana’s political lexicon in the mid 1970s by the ever-resourceful Cheddi Jagan. At that time the PNC had given itself a two-third majority of votes and seats in the National Assembly at the 1973 general elections. It placed the PPP on the backfoot by the nationalization […]
DRAMATIC TURN IN US POLITICS
Kamala Harris, described as an American woman of African and South Asian heritage, is poised to be nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in US elections to be held in November. In slow-motion, over two weeks and more, the effort of President Biden to seek a second term as President, amidst collapsing poll numbers, palpably […]