Dear Editor,
Powerful countries have often demanded that other countries behave towards them in accordance with the dictum ‘Do as I say, not as I do’. Within recent times the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) appears to have adopted that dictum with an adaptation of the language to read: ‘Do as I say now, not as I did then’. The following four citations are illustrative.
- PPP General Secretary and former Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee has called on Minister Khemraj Ramjattan to resign. However, after the National Assembly passed a motion of no confidence in Mr Rohee as Minister of Home Affairs, neither he nor the then government took action to comply with the motion.
- Member of Parliament Gail Teixeira recently implored the government to treat fairly those heads of mission appointed by the PPP/C administration whose contracts were not renewed, presumably to avoid the treatment meted out by Dr Cheddi Jagan’s government to Cedric Grant, Ronald Austin and others.
- Former President Donald Ramotar has called for the release (rightly so) of the forensic audits. But what did he do with the NCN (fraud?) report? Was it even released? Was it ever acted upon?
- There is incessant chatter about witch-hunting and victimisation. Do the chatterers remember Clarence Chue, whose reinstatement to office was ordered by the courts but ignored by the Cheddi Jagan government as was the court decision to hold a by-election in Houston three decades before Chue’s ordeal. And there were others beside Chue.
I am told that sometime in the past when people misbehaved, they were required or advised, as appropriate, to “take a bath with blue” (or bathe in blue-water). This option is available for use by any political stakeholder. As for the PPP, if the idea of a bath in blue is not appealing, that party may wish to consider establishing a truce with the politics of division and confrontation and adopt the politics of cooperation. Such a truce can develop a life of its own and be habit forming. It may also induce other political stakeholders to follow suit. Courage and a new vision are required. This would be a fitting gift from the oldest political party to the Guyanese people on the 50th anniversary of independence.
Yours faithfully,
Rashleigh E Jackson