Dear Editor,
The letter by Mr. Hamilton Green J.P., Mayor, `This is not a working democracy’ published in the Stabroek News of Saturday, October 11, 2008 launched into an attack on the PPP/C administration, mentioning numerous matters in an attempt to support his contention, and in which he refers to my letter `A return to democracy, we have come a long way.’
It seems to me that the very fact that he could write and have such a letter published (in a newspaper, incidentally, which claims to have the highest circulation), is in itself a contradiction of his claim that we do not have a working democracy.
Could anyone have had such a letter critical of the PNC government published, under their regime? We all know the answer.
I will deal with some of the things he mentions or to which he alludes. First of all, he refers to what he and others call the winner take all system, which by no means exists here, although he and his party had no problem with the loser take all system, when his party, in which he held senior positions, maintained itself in illegitimate and illegal office through institutionalized rigging of elections. He also refers to the Auditor-General’s office as “a vital institution for democracy.” I need to remind him that under the PNC government, no Auditor-General’s reports were submitted for ten years – from 1982 to 1992 – and which were reinstituted under the PPP/C government for full scrutiny by the parliament and the public, and which is examined by a bi-partisan Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament which is chaired by a member of the opposition – a working democracy.
In addition he refers to the need for governance which “truly reside(s) in the people and exercised by them through time honoured institutions, their representatives and protocol.”
I need to correct his memory lapse again or his selective amnesia, and remind him that all these institutions were subverted and corrupted under the doctrine of the paramountcy of the party, when they all had to pledge allegiance to his party, the PNC, instead of to the State.
It was left to the democratic PPP/C to work along with the public institutions to return them to their former professionalism – again, an example of a working democracy, and the private sector was returned to being the engine of growth. As regard local government and radio broadcasting, these and other issues have been engaging the two major political parties in discussions, and these issues have to be resolved, before actions can be taken – a working democracy.
The PPP/C administration is not a dictatorship – elected or otherwise – and would not impose its will.
Our President can serve no more than two terms and cannot become a president for life as was possible under the PNC, and can now appoint only four technocrat ministers instead of ten – a working democracy.
We no longer have political assassinations as happened with Dr. Walter Rodney, and no murders of media personnel as that of Fr. Bernard Darke which took place under the PNC regime. We do not have bullies, such as the House of Israel and others who violently broke up opposition political meetings and strikes.
We do not live in a Utopia, and as I mentioned also in my letter, we still have a long way to go – as besides the PPP/C having inherited a basket-case from the PNC, they had to deal with the problems created by this party in opposition when they tried to make the country “ungovernable” making appeals to “kith and kin,” which did not succeed.
Yours faithfully,
John Da Silva
