The African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) has said that the proroguing of the 10th Parliament has brought to the nation’s political consciousness the excesses of the PPP Administration and calls on stakeholders to condemn this moving away from the democratic process. President Donald Ramotar’s proroguing of Parliament flies in the face of good governance, national harmony and the participation of the people’s representatives in the management of the affairs of the people.
“Furthermore, prorogation is a short term pyrrhic victory in which political expediency or political survival is shrouded in dictatorial clothes,” ACDA said in a press statement.
The group said that it has always emphasized the importance of local government reform as a human right that would allow the people to have control and a voice in how their communities are governed and managed. “It was that deep affirmation of the right to self-determination that energised our people to usher in the village movement and purchase over 150 villages throughout Guyana,” it said. Further, the group said it had called for a system of shared governance since 1994, which it believed would harness the positive energies of all Guyanese and allow them to share equally in the national patrimony.
ACDA calls on President Ramotar, his advisors and Cabinet to immediately return Guyana to democracy through the primacy of Parliament.
Progressive groups and members of the diplomatic corps must also condemn this retrograde flow from the democratic process and urge a reconvening of Parliament that constitutes the spirit of the people.
