Dear Editor,
The PPP entered government 10 months ago and this accounts for close to 20 percent of its current term in office. It has nothing new to show for it. Its focus has been on widening roads and expanding the urban sprawl on this threatened piece of coastland. The reason may be because that was the president’s portfolio in the previous PPP term in office. But Irfaan Ali has appointed persons who cannot think big. Who do not have the intellectual capacity to hire experts with proven ability to get the projects executed? The new demerara bridge is an example. Some ministers seem to aggressively seek out media attention and some make extensive use of Facebook to appear relevant. The reason I stated that all these entities and persons who lead these entities are lazy is because GECOM continues to be staffed at the very senior levels by persons who attempted with all their energies to derail the democratic process and steal the March 2020 General and Regional elections. If the entities above exercises the same amount of energy that they did when the APNU+AFC along with several senior persons in GECOM tried to steal the elections in full view of the rest of the world then those persons within GECOM will not be on the job and being paid individually millions of dollars in salaries and allowances every month. This is totally unacceptable. The PPP and the government must be held mainly accountable by all decent minded citizens.
But this is the way the PPP operates once it’s in government. It sits back and enjoys the spoils of office and maintains the status quo until the next elections. Then the innocent persons on one side of the perceived political divide faces the brunt of the anger from the other side. This is unacceptable. The PPP must aggressively embark on installing the institutions of democracy which it failed to do in its previous terms in office. It cannot continue to sit back and accept the status quo. The PPP must have a greater intellectual deficit if it doesn’t realize that it has to do this immediately. The PPP depends mainly on the Indo Guyanese votes to enter government. This group is now only 40% of the population. It decreased by 10% over the last 20 years. Some persons are wiser and more objective so this 40% is not guaranteed. The next government may once again be a minority government if the small political parties doesn’t allow the PPP to swallow them up as it is becoming apparent. This is what the PNC did with the WPA and AFC et al. Therefore it is imperative that electoral reform and constitutional reform begin immediately. Constitutional reform is necessary since it is likely that moving forward, minority governments may be a fixture in Guyana. It is necessary to put the mechanisms in place to ensure the effective functioning of this form of government. The government must play a role in this. I suggest that a commission be setup for constitutional reform. Hold a national election to elect the various office holders. Persons who belong to political parties (past and present) and those who benefited from political parties (contracts, senior appointments, medals, etc.,) must be barred from competing and being elected.
Sincerely,
Harrish Singh
