Dear Editor,
As a former GBC operative, I must commend the sitting justices in the Guyana Court of Appeal’s principled ruling against the government’s intransigence in delaying, thus denying, Guyanese the right to obtain licences to operate independent radio stations, (`Radio monopoly by government unlawful’ SN Oct. 15, 2009), even as government spent the last 17 years enjoying a monopoly on radio and undermining its claim as a champion of democracy.
What obtained under the PNC regimes of Burnham and Hoyte, vis a vis radio, demanded change by the PPP correcting the PNC‘s wrongs after the PPP retook power in 1992. After all, as a GBC operative, I can personally testify to the fact that the PNC government openly denied the PPP, especially Dr. Cheddi Jagan, the kind of air time sought to vent on the issues of the day, and so having been the victim of the PNC’s discriminatory behaviour, most of us thought there was no way the PPP would assume power and behave like its predecessor. Unfortunately, we were not only disappointed by the PPP, but shocked and angered!
Also, under Burnham and Hoyte, Guyanese had little chance of resorting to the courts for relief against the PNC government, and so when the PPP government began showing it did not represent true change, the people were forced to test the justice system to see if there was any change there. Thankfully, there have been rays of hope, even if these have been periodically obscured by the passing of puffs of dark smoke billowing from the smokestacks of Freedom House and Office of the President.
I am beginning to finally believe that while the executive branch of government has the legislative branch under its influence or control (and I will get back to the legislative branch presently), it does not have the judicial branch quite firmly under its control, and if only this branch can continue to function independently of the executive branch, there is hope yet for Guyanese against the dictatorial propensities and discriminatory practices of the PPP and its government. Yes, I said the PPP, because even if the government appears to be operating independently of the ruling party, the ruling party is deafeningly silent in the face of many wrongs of its government, which suggests the ruling party is no different in its thinking.
For example, I certainly did not read where the PPP was disappointed with the President’s remarks to appeal last December’s decision by Chief Justice Ian Chang that went in favour of Lindeners Mortimer Yearwood and Norman Chapman against the State in a radio licence court case. That was as much a landmark ruling as the one just handed down by the Justices of Appeal in the case of Anthony Vieira versus the State in a separate radio licence court case, and while we all await the State’s response here, it was the State’s response in the previous case that should tell us what to expect from both the government and the ruling party.
The only area of disappointment I have with the courts is that neither the Chief Justice in his ruling nor the Justices of Appeal in their ruling have seen it fit to issue a deadline for the State to comply with or begin facing daily penalties for insubordination to the court. Well, I can understand the President appealing the Chief Justice’s ruling as part of the due process, but where will he turn to appeal the Appeal Court’s decision? The CCJ? He has already struck out in the just concluded TCL case in the CCJ, and this radio licence matter is such a slam dunk for Guyanese, he will definitely lose this one, too, if he goes again to the CCJ. His only option, therefore, is to find ways to keep delaying, thus denying, Guyanese their right, while exposing him, his government and the PPP for what they really are: mockers, not moulders, of democracy!
Meanwhile, I want the President’s political spinners to take note of the fact that of the three major Internet dailies in Guyana, only Stabroek News and Kaieteur News bothered to headline their respective Thursday editions with news of the Appeal Court ruling, whereas not only did the Chronicle refuse to carry the ruling as a headline item, there was not one item of the story on its home page. See, this is what we critics talk about when we accuse the government of trying to hide certain information from people, because this is not merely news, but a landmark ruling that deserves headline news status throughout the Caribbean. This is an embarrassing indictment of sorts against the Jagdeo administration of which West Indians should take careful note.
I did say I’d get back to making a point about the legislative branch, and so the news that the Alliance For Change will continue boycotting Parliament struck me as a little odd. I read its reasons for doing so, but I am not wholly sold on them, simply because the AFC (particularly Messrs. Trotman and Ramjattan) had to know even before winning seats in 2006 that Parliament has been abused and misused by the ruling parties to serve the rulers’ interests and not be a forum for genuine debate on the issues. The only objective for the AFC being present in Parliament, therefore, is to show its supporters and observers that even though it knows and disagrees with what is happening in Parliament that it respects the highest decision making forum enough to show up and keep making efforts to represent or at least appear to represent its constituents. I support the AFC because it represents change from old politics, and boycotting Parliament is not change; it is what the PPP and PNC have done to get at each other!
I want to challenge the AFC to reconsider its decision and, as a matter of principle and out of respect for the forum, return to Parliament while keeping the nation abreast of what is happening in there. There just might be something that happens there that hits the media that could be politically earth-shaking.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin,
Queens, NY
