Your might detect, rather easily, that I tend to leave some of the more topical issues to those commentators eminently qualified to analyse and share opinions on the numerous matters of “national significance”.
And frequently I struggle to discuss something “fresh” or different. That’s because fifty columnists and commentators hold forth on topics. Not even counting the daily professional letter-writers!
So indulge with me and today’s flight of (political) fancy. The questions are real but the answers to them are largely hypothetical. I’m presenting an imaginary interview with His Excellency President Donald Rabindranath Ramotar and how I think he will respond. Frankly Speaking I’m hoping our young journalists will do even a better job at framing similar questions. (Just do not bother the master of circumlocution, the eternal spokesman, Dr R. Luncheon.)
Thank you Mr President. Let’s begin with your own Party, two questions: Why is it that your method of choosing a presidential candidate does not include your party members directly?
The President: Well Sir, the Executives of my Party were chosen by those very Party members to make choices for them, so they are included! Next one?
In the face of migration, apathy and such like, how do you measure the PPP’s support, even its traditional base? President: Many organisations in this society do not boast actual card-bearing members. The PPP has thousands of members, activists and anonymous and silent. Despite the census, the apathy, the migration and the loss in the assembly, we can still win a plurality, the most seats alone, as we did in 2011. I know that because, simply, we are still Cheddi Jagan’s PPP.
Do you find significant those periodic reports from overseas institutions assessing Guyana’s standing or performance in such things as corruption, crime, trafficking in drugs or persons, even the millennium development goals?
Any country deemed under-developed or developing which accepts foreign assistance must pay attention to international opinion. But what are the credentials, the reputation and agenda of many of those self-righteous analysts. Do they measure their home country’s short-comings?
What does your Excellency think of Guyana’s newfound but already high-profile status as a drugs-transshipment point?
President: This is one area of national life and characterisation that I regret. Extremely so. I won’t go into the origins and development of this criminality. I am told that, as in certain other societies so blemished, topmost, well-placed individuals with appropriate capacities have to be involved. I do not know who these could be in Guyana but please be aware of the numerous strategies we have put in place for the battle against narcotics. And we do get lots of American assistance in this regard.
President Sir, I am not going to bother you with the garbage-ridden state of our nation’s capital where things deteriorate under your watch. Rather I ask this: as provided for in our constitution, do you see periodic local government elections providing more community democracy (as promised in your Party’s 2011 Elections Manifesto)?
President responds: What a complex question Mr Fenty! Yes we did promise local government polls one year after November 2011 but objective circumstances change. We passed subsequent Bills but study the Opposition demands. The PPP is not afraid of grass-root-power but how will the local “administrations” get funding to give any results teeth? Your tell me! No Sir you tell me Mr President.
Sir what do you now think of your young predecessor Bharrat Jagdeo? President: Not merely Now Sir. I have always held that young thinker in high esteem. Yes since I was PPP General Secretary when he put me on GuySuCo’s Board of Directors and in Parliament. Then he took me on several overseas trips to groom me before the 2011 elections.
Recall that during that campaign I described him as one of the country’s most important resources and that I would be utilizing his services. Now I’m still implementing his policies and programmes. He even utilized one of the OP offices with Shyam but I told him to take it easy. He’s still a young man who can long enjoy the fruits of retirement from the President’s (Benefits And Other Facilities) Act.
Look out for Bharrat’s Brand New Foundation out of his enormous Georgetown Office. Not from his large East Coast Residence. Coming soon.
Now I know you say you have ten other questions Mr Fenty, but I have to run now. I do have confidence in Dr Luncheon to respond on my behalf, why not approach him? “Me? No Mr President, never!”
Do they really represent you?
Do those politicians, union leaders, pastors, civil society organisations, Cabinet Ministers, Opposition Leaders or Dr Luncheon speak for, and represent you?
Does your representative consult with you to get your opinion before he or she purports to speak on your behalf? (At least your attorney who represents you in civil or criminal courts does take a brief from you.)
I muse over this question when I hear the daily plethora of statements, decisions, conclusions and policy positions adumbrated on some group’s behalf. After periodic national elections the representatives really sound off! It is to be hoped that they – especially the politicians – are representing you accurately and faithfully. And not just earning their wonderful keep.
Look at the results of the 2011 main elections. In terms of your actual votes: 475,496 of you were eligible/qualified to vote in 2011 November. But only 346,717 bothered. Of those 346,000 plus, 4418 were not valid enough to be counted. Do your arithmetic, especially addition and subtraction, and you see the Guyanese voters who mattered. Remember too that there are thousands of under-18’s, Jehovah Witnesses and I who do not vote.
So of the 72.9% turn-out then, the PPP/C secured 166,340 votes, the APNU group 139,638, AFC 35,333 and the UF 885. According to the Constitution, the PPP/C could have formed the government and the Presidency. Wow! Even if these figures are approximate, they show that nearly 10,000 souls more voted against the PPP/C. Add that to the thousands who did not vote though qualified and registered, plus the spoilt votes, and you’ll see just who the PPP/C claims to represent. And I’m not including the faithful now-disillusioned.
Discuss then: Do the President, Dr Roger and the Cabinet speak for all of us? (The President’s oath, mind you, directs that he be President for all of us. He said that in December 2011 too, But?
Ponder please…
*1) When will the government pulverize the British, the Canadians and the EU for calling for Local Government Elections?
*1b) Ambassador Brent Hardt speaks fluently, English, Italian, Dutch, German and French!
Imagine him ‘busing back Little Priya in Five languages!?
*2) Suppose the Americans assisted us in Paris the other day? So now LEAD AND THE DEA? No wonder Minister Mouthpiece Manickchand was directed to do her thing! Just my theory…
*3) Whose sovereignty is usually offended? The People’s? or the Government’s?
*4) Research, young journalists: What happens when Parliament is prorogued.
*5) Dr. Faith is so right. The goings on in Parliament and City Hall are no examples to youth. Examples in compromise, I mean.
*6) How would you describe Brazil’s Tuesday Licking? Debacle? Slaughter? Annihilation? Onslaught? Demolition? Humiliation? All of the above?
*7) Two Anti-Brazil Football Jokes: The Ref saw no need for Additional Time. And Brazil was glad to declare at 7:1
Till next week!
(allanafenty@yahoo.com)
