Dear Editor,
The unusual proroguing of the 10th Parliament by President Ramotar just prior to a scheduled vote of no‐confidence against the government, has now provoked considerable debate in and out of Guyana. The Guyanese parliamentary system was formed from a Westminster model and although it was changed over the years, the general practice remains along Westminster lines and is known as responsible government.
Everyone knows that this act of prorogation is technically lawful under this reviled 1980 constitution. Even after some alteration during the constitutional reform process, it was too little and too shallow to really achieve the impact necessary to foster and promulgate the concept of one nation and one destiny. The constitution continues to serve the executive government rather than the people for which it is written.
What the PPP is not recognizing is that the constitution provides for parliamentary scrutiny and even though it might be tedious, democracies like ours cannot afford to dispense with that. It is not right; the law has to make sense and be fair to all the people.
Can anyone imagine the law provided the power to magistrates to send someone to prison for having one ounce of cocaine but also empowers them to issue a suspended sentence to a confessed drug trafficker who was caught with $300 million worth of drugs, which mean he spends zero time in jail? How can anyone expect the people to respect a law which is seen as unfair?
So when the PPP reached a fork in the road where they had to choose between justice and injustice, they quickly threw away the democratic process and embraced dictatorship. There is no turning back now. Just as Indira Gandhi of India had to carry that baggage when she ruled by decree, the PPP will forever have to carry this baggage for generations to come, ie, that it has metamorphosed into a dictatorship. They are not in favour of democracy as they professed to be. Evidence of this type of hypocrisy is in the proroguing of Parliament by Mr Ramotar.
The effect of this prorogation on the nation will be considerable since the people’s resources will continue to be diluted by a government without the people’s permission. The PPP has now, quite dictatorially chosen an immoral weapon to use against the people including their own supporters, so that they may not inquire into how their resources are being managed. Do as I say but do not ask me any question, seems to be the diktat of the PPP regime.
It is clear that the PPP regime does not understand that prorogation of Parliament was designed for a king or an emperor with zero accountability to the people. This had not been the case prior to November 10, 2014 whereby ministers were responsible to democratically elected representatives of the people. They cannot convince the masses in and out of Guyana that they are democratic when they act in such a dictatorial manner.
The PPP regime ought to recognize that they have now joined the ranks of other dictators around the world who use the democratic process as a disguise to impose their dictatorial will on the people. Simply put, the PPP has abandoned the democratic process for dictatorship.
It is up to the majority opposition to stop this despotic PPP regime from curtailing the people’s freedom, abusing the constitution and from doing further damage to the democratic process. As James Madison advised us: “Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”
Today the PPP has taken away the liberty of the people; tomorrow they will take away the people’s economic freedom; then their social choices and beliefs; and eventually their will and self-determination. This is the time for action and no one can deny that the nation is on the threshold of a new area. This is not a struggle for one party or another; it is a fight to save democracy in Guyana and against the PPP regime. It is up to the Guyanese people.
Yours faithfully,
Asquith Rose
Harish Singh
