Dear Editor,
A Guyanese friend of mine in New York asked me Thursday what I thought of the unfolding events in Guyana, vis-à-vis the role of the Chinese in the Marriott and the CCTV national embarrassments, and I responded with a question of my own: What does President Donald Ramotar think? After all, these developments may have had their genesis in the Jagdeo era, but the embarrassing revelations are taking place on his watch.
I really don’t know what other people knew of President Ramotar to even think, long before he became President, that he would make a difference on succeeding Mr Bharrat Jagdeo, but I was sceptical because I believe that a potential president is supposed to either have an impressive resumé (like Democrat Bill Clinton, whose work as Governor of Arkansas with then Republican President Ronald Reagan on welfare reform was publicly recognized by then Republicans) or at least be a charismatic visionary (like Democrat Barack Obama, who, despite lack of a deep resumé, won the support of the majority of Americans twice with his strong vision for a better America and efforts to this end). President Ramotar was and still is ‘0 for 2’ in this regard.
And nowhere were his paucities more pronounced than as the ruling party’s chief representative on the state-owned GuySuCo board, as the corporation haemorrhaged billions due to mismanagement and industrial strike action called by his party’s union, GAWU, and as PPP General Secretary/Leader, when he oversaw his party’s loss of a parliamentary majority for the first time in 2011.
Absent his leadership skills and charisma, therefore, one would have thought that he would at least surround himself with proven professional advisers and cabinet appointments that could fill the substantial gap. Instead, he opted to retain the advisers of the Jagdeo era and to go with an all-PPP/C cabinet. In other words, he was not going to be the change candidate many thought or hoped for.
This explains why, after the Linden killings of July 18, 2012, that was his first major test as President, he appeared to have left most of the decision-making to his advisers, who doubled as spokespersons. And if he appeared detached and distant then, then guess what? Nothing has changed in the wake of the Marriott and CCTV scandals now blowing up in his face.
Ever since the angle on the absence of Guyanese workers on the Marriott project broke, we have heard from Head of the Privatization Unit/CEO of NICIL and AHI, Mr Winston Brassington and Labour Minister, Dr Nanda Gopaul. This ongoing story is a national embarrassment, if not a violation of the constitution that entitles Guyanese the right to work, but especially on a project funded by Guyanese taxpayers, yet the President of Guyana is missing in action, pretty much like he was on the GuySuCo board and at the helm of the PPP in 2011.
But, as if that story was not enough to get Guyanese all riled up, another story involving the Chinese broke, with the revelation that the PPP regime had granted the Chinese regime the right to broadcast, with licence approved and frequency identified, which many are arguing is unheard of in any other country. And while the granting of the broadcast right, along with the Marriott deal, was done prior to President Ramotar’s accession to office, the fact is that these revelations are happening on his watch, and instead of taking a leadership stance on this issue, he has left it to head of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA), Bibi Shadick, to go public and state that she has no record of the Chinese-owned television station being given permission to operate here.
The only reason why she did that was because she is an attorney and she knows that there is a law that requires everyone, including the PPP regime, to adhere to when applying for a broadcast licence. But Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, who is not an attorney but the principal spokesman for the regime, ill-advisedly stuck his foot in his mouth when he reportedly declared that the PPP regime “has executive authority to bypass the broadcasting laws and order the allocation of a frequency to any foreign government with which it has sealed an agreement to establish a station here” (‘Gov’t doesn’t need to apply for frequency for foreign state broadcasters,’ Demwaves.com, February 14).
That glaring contradiction of the law simply cannot be ignored, because it speaks of both the lack of leadership at the highest level (the presidency) and the ruling party’s penchant for law-breaking with impunity. Clearly, if the executive has the authority today to break the Broadcast Act, then what is to stop it from citing executive authority tomorrow to break any other law? Is this not how dictators reason?
In fact, given that the Chinese government is run by communist dictators who thrive in secrecy (lack of accountability or transparency) and these are the same people the PPP regime is dealing with in various areas of Guyanese life and livelihood, why shouldn’t we readily conclude that the PPP and its regime are on a determined push, with the help of their Chinese counterparts, to usher in an era of PPP dictatorship?
Is this really what Guyanese voters voted for when they voted for the PPP in 2011 to run the government? Or is the PPP capitalizing on the loyalty of its support base to run roughshod over the country and entrench itself as a corrupt, lawless, discriminatory (even in the case of Chinese over Guyanese), vindictive and dictatorial regime?
What exactly is President Ramotar’s stance on these nationally embarrassing hot button issues that cry out for acceptable explanations from concerned, strong and decisive leadership at the presidential level? Is it a case that he does not care or is it a case that he does not know what to do?
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
