Dear Editor,
The blow-up over the possible misappropriation of funds is an indication of the backwardness, mixed with corruption and deceit in the electoral process. To illustrate the backwardness part of the mix, let me take Guyanese back to 1952/1953 when I was a young school teacher at Dartmouth. District Commissioner Sholto Douglas, trained as all senior civil servants were in the laws, the rules and the ethics of public sector administration, called a meeting of public servants one Sunday morning, to hire us on the Essequibo Coast for the registration process for the 1953 elections which was the first with adult suffrage in Guyana. Previous elections required either an income or a property qualification to vote.
Adult suffrage included thousands of individuals who were illiterate.
We, the registration officers, included school teachers, civil servants, post office workers, agricultural officers, village overseers, youth officers and the like. We were addressed by Mr Douglas on the responsibilities and on the procedures that had to be followed. Areas were clearly demarcated to avoid overlap.
We registered voters after work in the afternoons and at weekends. The lists we handled were compiled in the District Commissioner’s office and finalised in Georgetown. They were returned for public display at the District Commissioner’s office, at the police stations, at the village offices and at other public places throughout the Essequibo Coast.
Lists were scrutinised by the people of the Essequibo Coast. The names of those who lived in, say, Better Success, were scrutinised outside of the postal agency at Dartmouth where lists for the Dartmouth to Better Hope area were posted. Political parties participated in the process largely by volunteers who knew individuals in each area.
How else should this process be done? Certainly not by the present methods. A registration officer from Georgetown has not a clue about whether Ramnauth of Better Success lives in Venezuela or lives in Better Success. But a villager in Dartmouth would have a better chance of knowing.
Greater Georgetown should be divided into wards and city council workers, in the main, can be sworn in as registration officers. Knowledge of residents will not be as intimate as in the rural areas but a sufficiently long posting of the lists will minimise fraud.
This is the common sense arrangement that prevails in the Caricom countries and that existed in Guyana before independence. To return to this straightforward and transparent process we need to implement the government reforms that I keep advocating, namely (a) the depoliticisation of the public services by a thoroughgoing implementation of the separation of powers, (b) the empowerment of the people in the local authorities and (c) the decentralisation of the administration.
The PNC politicised the public services with the implementation of the paramountcy of the party. The PPP screamed blue murder at party paramountcy when in opposition but Dr Jagan gave it three cheers in1993, saying that it was appropriate in the right hands. By getting rid of the District Commissioner, the PNC threw out the baby of efficient administration with the bath water of the pride that District Commissioners felt in working for the Queen. To keep the baby of efficient administration, it was necessary to appoint highly qualified Regional Executive Officers (REOs) and institute a system in the centre of which REOs can be proud.
That is how we should implement the separation of powers.
The PNCR should strive for this principled change. But it refuses to do so, partly because the dysfunctionality originated with the PNC and partly because it hopes to govern some day with the same non-transparent authoritarianism that the PPP/C now enjoys.
The second reform of empowering people is more difficult because there was not a comprehensive colonial antecedent and our leaders find it difficult to develop and implement new ideas. As mentioned, Georgetown should be divided into wards with people developing ward community relations, as in the past, when membership of Lodge, Wortmanville, Bourda, Charlestown and Albuoystown conferred a sense of belonging to citizens.
In the rural areas, the only solution, and let me emphasize, the only solution to the low-grade racial war that we are now fighting, is the demarcation of Indian communities and African villages and the election of councils for the development of the separate communities.
When communities develop with their own distinctiveness, they will, over time, gain respect from one another and thereby provide the basis for racial peace. Cultural homogenisaton will later follow. It was naïve of all the political parties, but particularly the WPA and now the AFC, to expect culturally distinct races to come together when their yearning for collective self-determination had not been realised or when it appears that there will be no hope for the realization of such collective self-determination.
When people are motivated by a thoroughgoing process as herein outlined, they will have an interest in scrutinising electoral lists.
The third reform of returning the administration to the more decentralised arrangements of the past will fall into place as the public service is depoliticised and the people are empowered to manage such affairs as come within their jurisdictional authority.
It was necessary to set out the necessary reforms to illustrate how clownish it is for (a) Gecom to maintain central control of the registration process, (b) President Jagdeo to shell out millions for scrutinising which empowered people can do voluntarily, and (c) Mr Corbin to accept a large amount of money without a clear contract for deliverables.
These three transgressions illustrate gross incompetence and wickedness.
Dr Surujbally is naïve but both President Jagdeo and Mr Corbin are wicked in denying us the reforms that we need for our advance. Jagdeo is pursuing domination while Corbin’s aimlessness is permitting the realisation of that domination. President Jagdeo and Mr Corbin are both betraying democracy in their crafty slide to local government elections without taking the tough decisions to reform the system. And the AFC, who are now squealing, are lacking in vision.
This letter points to the fact that the registration system is rotten and needs to be reformed. The simplistic special pleading from the President about misappropriation of funds by the PNCR pales into insignificance when compared with the PPP’s neglect to reform the registration system thoroughly. Either reform the electoral system thoroughly or shut up when corruption takes place. The present system is tailor-made for corruption.
Yours faithfully,
Clarence F. Ellis
