2015


The electorate will be called upon in 2015 to decide the political shape of Guyana for the immediate future. The performance of the economy and resolution of social problems will be dominant considerations. The electorate will punish the party in office if it feels that its economic and social conditions have not improved. It did so when the PNC was in office. It did so in 2011. There will a significant enough shift in sentiment to affect the outcome of the elections if the electorate is sufficiently dissatisfied.

If it is, it is unlikely to accept the excuse that the Opposition did not support projects. The electorate’s response to any such allegation may well be that it sent a message at the last elections that there should be a coalition government, which the PPP had the power to implement, but which it ignored and, therefore, it has no one to blame but itself for an allegedly recalcitrant Opposition.

Continue reading “2015”

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM NEEDS POLITICAL CONSENSUS


A constitution defines the basic laws, structures for governance and rights and responsibilities under which a society is organized. A constitution needs to be changed when some or all of its rules no longer reflect the popular will or when they have been overtaken after the effluxion of time. Suggestions for reform of the constitution, therefore, reflect a view that it is in need of restructuring.

The recent proposals of the AFC announced by its Chair, Mr. Nigel Hughes, at the party’s recent conference suggests that the structure of our executive and legislature, and the relationship between them, need to be altered. These proposals add to those already in circulation, offered by other persons. There is also substantial writing and academic material on record on situations like Guyana’s. This debate will gather steam and climb to the top of the agenda only when the political conditions mature.

Continue reading “CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM NEEDS POLITICAL CONSENSUS”

OPPOSITION UNITY


For some who oppose the PPP, an alliance of opposition political parties to contest elections has always been a prime objective. The AFC brought that reality closer at its conference last weekend when Party Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, in a departure from previous policy, offered the AFC as the leader of a pro-democracy opposition alliance of trade unions, civil society, disaffected PPP members and APNU to contest the upcoming general elections. APNU’s leaders welcomed the initiative but appeared to be less than enthusiastic.

History and political realities suggest that opposition unity would be difficult to achieve. The pre-1992 efforts between the constituent parties of the PCD (Patriotic Coalition for Democracy), the WPA being one, did not succeed. There have never been any substantial alliances that have made a political difference and have endured. The first major, informal alliance between classes and individuals in Guyana’s politics was in 1950 under the banner of the PPP. But this was not a structural alliance between different, organized, groups. It failed anyway.

Continue reading “OPPOSITION UNITY”

GUYANA’S POLITICAL DISTRESS


The notion in 1950 by the leaders of the PPP that freedom will bring justice has not materialized. We have won Independence and have shaken off authoritarian rule, but justice has not arrived. The rotation of political power between parties, supported mainly by our two major ethnic groups, has not fulfilled the dream of economic justice and equality of opportunity that were the promise of Independence, notwithstanding our economic and human potential. The nature of our exports in nearly fifty years of Independence tells the entire story. It was raw material then and it is raw material now.

That the promise of Independence has not been realized ought not to have been a surprise to our leaders. Imbued with an ideological orientation that suggested the primacy of class conflict and class dominance as the motive forces of injustice, they excluded their regimes from equation and the trap of economic relations of production. The theory holds that exploitation is inherent in an economic system where class rule predominates and such rule predominates in any market, or capitalist, economy.

Continue reading “GUYANA’S POLITICAL DISTRESS”

FLOATING CAR PARKS.


Guyana has hit world headlines several times in its modern history. The news that created these headlines have been negative and related mainly to political events, although the reason for Guyana’s position on the map in recent times, Jonestown, was not essentially political as far as the outside world was concerned. Guyana is a poor, Third World country and the negative publicity has done nothing for its development.

At the current time, the authorities along with the private sector are making monumental efforts to develop a tourist industry. These efforts started some time ago and while progress is being made, there is still much to be done. The obstacles are well known. They are the less than positive image of Guyana from its political history, current political instability, dilapidated infrastructure, low investment in tourism and the state of the City. The latter is a work in progress and while there has been some, the tourist sector is obviously hopeful that there will be much more.

Continue reading “FLOATING CAR PARKS.”