TRUST AND CONFIDENCE

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 1st April 2023, 9:00 pm

The constitutional reform process, 1999-2000, and other measures spawned by the Herdmanston Accord, sought to bring to an end the 1997 post-election violence. President Janet Jagan resigned the Presidency due to ill-health and President Jagdeo assumed office in August, 1999. General elections were held in 2001 and the PPP was returned to office. After the third round of intense post-election violence in 2001, the Constitution was amended to implement the wide-ranging reforms, the vast majority of which were to introduce a system of cooperation and consultation. By 2002 the legislative process was complete and the constitutional and legislative bodies were being established.

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CHEDDI JAGAN – SOME REFLECTIONS

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 25th March 2023, 9:00 pm

In 1943 Cheddi Jagan returned to a British Guiana that was a cauldron of poverty. The report of the Moyne Commission published in 1945 concluded that for the labouring population, “mere subsistence was increasingly problematic.” The defeat of Nazi Germany with the help of the heroic Soviet Union inspired many; India, China and the colonial world were on the move. In 1947, with Janet Jagan, Ashton Chase and Jocelyn Hubbard, Cheddi Jagan established the Political Affairs Committee (PAC). In the same year he fought and won a seat in the Legislative Council. These events were at the cusp of momentous developments in British Guiana.

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GUYANA’S PROBLEMS CAN ONLY BE RESOLVED BY DEMOCRATIC MEANS

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 18th March 2023, 9:00 pm

During the 2020 events surrounding the attempts by APNU+AFC to rig the elections, the idea arose that the dominant issue was not elections but a political solution. It was suggested that efforts ought to be concentrated on persuading the APNU+AFC Government and the PPP to resolve the electoral crisis by establishing a power sharing government. In the absence of a formula determined by a popular mandate, it was not known at that time in what proportion each party, and maybe others, would share the government. That alone would have been a deal breaker. But a more fundamental issue arose. No one that I knew, including many who were not PPP supporters, were willing to allow a dictatorship based on fraudulent elections to once again emerge to haunt Guyana, perhaps for decades to come. The sentiment appeared to be: democracy first, shared government after.

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POLITICS AND THE JOINT SERVICES

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 11th March 2023, 9:00 pm

In a statement yesterday, the Chairman of the Joint Services, Brigadier Godfrey Bess, reminded citizens of Guyana that, irrespective of its ethnic composition, the Joint Services of Guyana is an apolitical institution and will continue to serve the people of Guyana. The Chairman said that the Joint Services is guided by the Constitution and not by any “partisan values and interests.” Brigadier urged “social activists and commentators to refrain from misleading and mischievous remarks which incite racial tensions.” Stabroek News remarked that it is “unclear what exactly triggered the statement today.

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RIOT ACT

Written by Ralph Ramkarran
Saturday, 4th March 2023, 9:00 pm

Guyana has the second highest rate of suicide in the world, a higher rate of death by violence than Mexico and is at 63rd place out of 183 countries in death by road accidents. These figures are based on per thousand of population and are provided by the World Health Organisation for 2020. There is only an occasional voice of concern raised about suicides. There are no horror stories about death by violence in Guyana, as there is in Mexico.

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