Dear Editor,
In a few months, it will be almost two years without even a hearing of the election petition filed in the Supreme Court of Judicature, while in contrast, for example, Trinidad and Tobago has not only had a hearing but a ruling with a written decision and an appeal and the dismissal of that appeal by their Court of Appeal.
The excessive delay in Guyana has damaged seriously the legitimacy and credibility of the judicial process as a non-violent means of settling election disputes.
The consequences of this damaged process are extremely grave indeed. Disputes are inevitable in life, and a non-violent means of solving those disputes is absolutely critical to our civilization. Courts have been the universal institutional creature specifically created, accessed, and applied for that very purpose, a non-violent means of dispute resolution. But, essential to its operation is the pillar of credibility, ie, people believing that this institution will yield a result which is both impartial and expeditious.
Equally grave, however, is the silence of the NGOs, the political activists, political parties (excluding the PPP but including those of the parties in the coalition government), and the international community representatives. Why? In particular, the ubiquitous international representatives who made it their mission to be present and to issue statements and directives during and immediately after the May 2015 election such “take your seat in parliament…” or strong statements to stop publicly complaining and have the claim of a fraudulent result heard in court have gone mute on the issue of the excessive delay, quite possibly without appreciating the grave potential consequence of their silence.
This delay along with the concomitant silence should worry all Guyanese and all interested in the welfare of Guyana, especially now that it is on the verge of being a significant oil and gas producer in the world.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
Yours faithfully,
Charles S Ramson