Dear Editor,
Guyana is one of the most depressing countries to live in because Guyanese have to battle with the harsh economic conditions, out-of- control crime spree, and daily insults to their intelligence by some politicians and their minions who dominate the traditional media and social media. In my humble view, the latter is by far the most painful stressors in our dear land. Like crime and economic hardships, these relentless insults are driving Guyanese almost crazy and in some cases, six feet under from stress-related illnesses and permanently out of Guyana.
The most recent insult that was hurled at us came from the Director-General at the Ministry of the Presidency, Mr. Joseph Harmon at his post-Cabinet briefing. At this forum, Mr. Harmon, conjectured that any move by Dr. Irfaan Ali to make Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo his running mate would amount to the violation of Article 90 of the Constitution of Guyana which prohibits a person from serving more than two terms as President. According to Honourable Harmon, if the PPP were to be successful at the next election and Dr. Jagdeo is appointed as vice-president, Dr. Jagdeo would be elevated to the position of the President if and when Dr. Ali were to leave the jurisdiction. As such, this violates Article 90 of the Constitution since Dr. Jagdeo would have already served two terms.
Editor, if this is not a vulgar display of duplicity and insult to our intelligence, then nothing could be classified thus. Here we have Mr. Harmon, speaking about ‘possible’ non-compliance with the Constitution while briefing Guyanese about the work of Cabinet that was compelled to resign many months ago but refused to do so in clear violation of Article 106(6) of the Constitution. In other words, Mr. Harmon is telling Guyanese that we should only be concerned that the PPP/C will ‘probably’ violate the Consti-tution but ignore the fact that his colleagues are violating the same Constitu-tion by refusing to recognise the resignation of Cabinet. This is synonymous with a religious leader telling his followers ‘do as I say and not as I do.’
Editor, is it not also hypocritical and insulting for Mr. Harmon to lecture Guyanese on constitutional compliance and legal ploys, when he is part of a Government that consciously employed legal stratagems to circumvent Article 106(7) of the Constitution? Mr. Harmon indeed forgot that after accepting the no-confidence motion that was passed, his colleagues delayed the elections beyond the three months’ time frame set out in Article 106(7) by using a variety of ploys in and out of the court system. They started with a request to have the speaker set aside the motion in the National Assembly to appeals that went to the highest court in our judicial hierarchy, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Even after these ploys failed at the CCJ, Mr. Harmon and his colleagues still cling to power in clear violation of Article 106(7), which required that the government hold elections within three months or such time as determined by 2/3 of the National Assembly. How-ever, Mr. Harmon wants Guyanese to respect the Constitution and ruling of the CCJ regarding the famous “Cedric Richardson” while he and his colleagues flagrantly disregard the CCJ, which instructed that Articles 106(6) and 106(7) be observed.
Editor, instead of insulting Guyanese with hypocritical utterances, Mr. Harmon and colleagues should lead by example and comply with the Constitution. In this regard, Mr. Harmon should do the following: (i) encourage his colleagues to resign from Cabinet, (ii) request the President to dissolve parliament; and (iii) ensure that elections are held as promised on March 2, 2020. Respect and comply with the Constitution, and then ask others to do likewise.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
