A week after President Donald Ramotar suspended Parliament by proclamation, his government stands isolated with key sections of society withholding support for the move and pressure mounting for a reversal of his action, analysts say.
Some of the most damning criticism has come from persons once close to the ruling PPP/C and from the son of the party’s founder Dr Cheddi Jagan who said that his father would have never countenanced the shutting down of parliament.
In a letter in the November 14th edition of Stabroek News, Cheddi (Joey) Jagan Jnr said “President Cheddi would never have suspended Parliament as this PPP government has done. Even in the 1960s Jagan offered a solution of coalition government, with compromise and national reconciliation.
“Therefore, Editor, I would like the Guyanese public to know that I completely disassociate myself from the PPP’s decision to shut down our Parliament, and more than that, to head down the road to perdition by breaking the backbone of democracy in our country. Parliament, in our heritage as an English-speaking country, is the backbone of any democracy (along with the press) and to close down Parliament, where Jagan was moulded and nurtured as a politician, is a slap in the face of his legacy and his service to this nation. Shame on those who made this decision and shame on those who agreed to it – a disgrace and calamity for our nation.”
He also labelled the move as bordering on dictatorship.
Yesterday, another former party grandee, Ralph Ramkarran criticized the prorogation decision in his Stabroek News column and called for a national unity government.
“The President said that the objective of prorogation is to prevent confrontation and encourage consultation. The opposite will be the result. The government’s life has come to a natural end because stalemate reigns everywhere. The renewal of the government’s mandate, not perpetuation of its life, was the solution. A national unity government is another”, he said.
Ramkarran, who parted ways with the PPP after nearly 50 years of membership following his concerns that the party was not taking corruption concerns seriously, said the Ramotar government had numerous opportunities to arrive at compromises with the opposition but failed to utilize them. This, he said, led the opposition to believe that the government’s ideal of dialogue was capitulation.
“In these circumstances, no one can seriously believe, that having shut down the National Assembly, the main forum through which the opposition speaks to the people of Guyana, that it will be in any mood for further unproductive talks. It would have been more useful for the business community and others to direct their attention instead to where they know that Guyana should go from here – elections or a national unity government”, the former two-term Speaker of the National Assembly said.
He added that civil society must invite the government to put the issue of a national unity government on the table, restore Parliament and then invite the opposition for talks on that issue.
Former longstanding PPP executive and now AFC Vice-Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo whose motion of no-confidence against the government was cut off by the prorogation, likened the move to the suspension of the 1953 constitution which tossed out the first PPP government and which event has become the centrepiece of the party’s narrative of the struggle for Guyana’s independence.
On his facebook page, Nagamootoo said: “History Repeated: On 8th October, 1953 after democratically held elections, the British landed troops in British Guiana, occupied the colony and ousted the elected leaders. People condemned the invaders as foreign `dogs of war’. On November 10, 2014 our own local Guyanese leaders ousted the elected leaders and terminated the parliamentary session. It was an invasion by Presidential Proclamation. Old people say that `it alright if neighbour dog bite you. Is when you own dog bite you that it hurts!’”
Nagamootoo, who was credited with drawing enough support away from the PPP/C at the 2011 general elections to leave it without a parliamentary majority, also said “Today was marred by the shadows of creeping dictatorship by the Ramotar Stalinist junta, that cowardly terminated the Session of parliament at which a no confidence vote would have been approved. We didn’t celebrate. As our national poet Martin Carter mourns: `this is the dark time, my love… Every-where brown beetles crawl … watching you sleep and aiming at your dreams.’”
Withering criticism also came from longstanding PPP/C minister Henry Jeffrey. In his Stabroek News column last Wednesday, Jeffrey said “True to form, with prorogation the PPP is following a corrupt tradition that is only usually broken when the people stand ready to punish the defaulter”.
Civil society
As has been its practice, analysts say whenever it faces a crisis, the PPP/C resorts to favoured sections of civil society for support but this time around it failed. At a gathering of civil society with President Ramotar and his team on November 11, the Guyana Trades Union Congress team comprising Lincoln Lewis and Norris Witter inveighed heavily against the suspension of Parliament and this prevented the issuing of a support statement. While there were numerous calls for dialogue from those gathered there was no ringing endorsement of Ramotar’s move to shut down Parliament.
Even more disconcerting for the government, analysts say were the strong statements from two private sector groups calling for general elections to break the political gridlock. General elections would have been the outcome of the successful passage of Nagamootoo’s motion and this, analysts say, the government was not prepared for. Usually, analysts note, the government has been able to elicit supporting statements from the private sector and while the Private Sector Commission (PSC) issued a non-descript statement, two of its key affiliates: the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) had differing perspectives.
The PSC’s statement on the day of prorogation said that it was “concerned and disappointed that the continued absence of political compromise between our government and the opposition has led to this abnormal situation. It is obviously not a situation conducive to a stable business environment or encouraging to business investment. We can only hope that good sense will prevail and that the national interests predominate over potentially destructive narrow political intent.”
On the other hand, the GCCI said that only general elections will resolve the current deadlock between the government and the opposition.
The GCCI said that it was “extremely disappointed with the state of affairs as it pertains to the current status of our legislative branch of government.”
Fifty years
GCCI added that it was almost fifty years since this country’s independence and the various factions within the political establishment still do not have the maturity to find common ground.
It also said that once again the Constitution had failed to provide definitive guidance in matters critical to the stewardship of the nation.
The Chamber said that in view of the stalemate, gridlock and failure to compromise over the past three years, the Chamber is hard pressed to believe that positive dialogue will be conducted during this period.
“It is clear that only national elections will resolve this issue. If the same or similar parliamentary configuration is the end result it means that the electorate is demanding that the political parties work together and those wishes should be respected”, the Chamber said.
For its part, the GMSA said “that the decision to prorogue Parliament highlights for all the world to see the destructive trajectory of our democratic evolution. It could only lead to further conflict and confrontation, the effects of which will benefit no one”.
It added that the prorogation of Parliament has left citizens fearful of its potential to erode their lives and livelihoods. “This development has heightened everyone’s awareness of the very apparent absence of trust among the people who frame, regulate and administer the laws of Guyana,” the GMSA said. According to the group, the gateway to rebuilding Guyana’s international credibility leads to restoration of that trust. “All parties must either resolve to peacefully find consensus on the thorny issues, including the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Bill or go back to the electorate for their mandates.”
“From all indications Guyanese have had enough of the gamesmanship, the brinkmanship and the econo-political shenanigans that have characterized our political landscape in the recent past,” the GMSA said. “Our tenuous social and economic development cannot withstand more of this “push me-pull you” governance that has already driven away too many of our trade and intellectual skills, people who were trained here for our country’s development.”
Analysts point out that while the government has become accustomed to statements of support from religious organisations it would have been jolted by a rare statement from the Catholic Bishop Francis Alleyne that the suspension of parliament had put the country in uncharted waters.
The bishop who had been present at the civil society meeting summoned by the government on November 11, called “… on all Guyanese and their leaders to ensure that we navigate these uncertain times peacefully, honestly and respectfully with a view to the earliest resumption of parliamentary democracy.
“Finally, this crisis, this time of opportunity, requires all Guyana to join hands and find solutions to both the immediate impasse and the longer-term causes that led to it. I commit my support for initiatives that bring people together in common cause for our beloved country”.
The bishop’s statement prompted an invitation from Ramotar for a private meeting but the bishop said that while he listened to the President’s explanation of the prorogation “My own input in the meeting was to reiterate the points central to my public statement namely Reconciliation and Trust”.
While pointing out that the President’s action to suspend Parliament was catered for under the constitution, the Organisation of American States (OAS) said it hopes that parliamentary debate here could resume in the shortest possible time and it noted that an efficiently functioning Parliament allows for checks and balances and for the voice of the people to be heard.
Analysts point out that while the government has cited the six-month maximum period the prorogation can last, the international community as demonstrated in the OAS statement is expecting a short suspension. The analysts note that in the coming days the Ramotar administration could face pressure from western governments if it appears that the suspension will persist. Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman has also flayed the President’s decision and has sought intercession from the Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma.
In proclaiming the prorogation, Ramotar had said that if there was no prospect of dialogue with the opposition then he would proceed towards general elections. With both opposition groups saying repeatedly that there would be no dialogue without parliament being reconvened, Ramotar would now be under pressure to either end the suspension or dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections.
