The government, through the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, has been accused of deliberately excluding the APNU+AFC Parliamentary Opposition from the national flag-raising ceremony in observance of Guyana’s 52nd Republic Anniversary.
The ceremony was held on the lawns of the Parliament Building on Tuesday night and saw the attendance of foreign diplomats and a slew of government officials. Also, in the mix, was Deputy Speaker Lenox Shuman who was the only Opposition Member of Parliament there.
Stabroek News was unable to determine whether he received an invite or not.
The annual Republic Day flag-raising ceremony is usually executed by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport since it falls on the calendar of national events. Stabroek News tried several times yesterday to call Minister Charles Ramson Jr, who heads the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry but those calls went unanswered.
During a brief telephone interview, Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones related that they received no invitation from the government or the organisers of the event. He said that they were flabbergasted at the move and some MPs even visited Parliament Building to see if the invites were dropped off there.
“I, myself, went to Parliament Building around 2 pm and was there for two hours and made queries about whether there were invitations for us and was told there wasn’t. MPs Cathy Hughes and Nima Flue-Bess also made queries to the Clerk (of the National Assembly) as to whether there were invitations there for them. We were not invited, we did some checks just to confirm whether or not any invitations were dropped at any location or not including the Parliament Building and nothing was there for us,” Jones said.
Jones added that the event is one that is about Guyana and not a political party.
“As much as we are celebrating 52 years as a Republic, we seem to be retrogressing. It is a sad state of affairs in the country when you speak of democracy and inclusionary democracy and your actions fly in the face of that.
“How could you have a national event such as Republic Day and not extend an invitation to all and sundry to be part of the celebration. It clearly shows you that you speak one thing, about this whole `One Guyana’ and building oneness and then excluding representatives of the people,” he stated while referencing President Irfaan Ali’s vision of “One Guyana” which the President mentioned in his address at the event.
“The 31 of us (APNU+AFC MPs) are not individuals, we are in the House as a result of thousands of people voting for us individually. At least I am in the House because at least 7,500 persons voted and likewise my colleagues. It is almost half the voting population we represent and we are being excluded. Therefore you have effectively excluded half of the population of this country which runs counterproductive about the talks of building oneness and building cohesion and all of this about inclusionary democracy,” Jones added.
He accused President Ali of making statements of building oneness to appease the international community while acting contrary to those statements.
While in Opposition, the PPP/C chose to stay away from national flag-raising events after it attended the golden jubilee flag-raising ceremony in 2016 and the then APNU+AFC administration reportedly failed to provide them with adequate seating.
When asked whether the APNU+AFC Opposition would have shown up to Tuesday night’s flag-raising ceremony, Jones said that MPs were prepared to show up even without being invited.
“Within our MP WhatsApp group…some MPs saying I am going. MPs were prepared to dress and show up. As a representative of the people, there is an expectation that you would be invited to these forums and you have to attend. It is not PNC or PPP this, this is national…if the invitations were available there were 14 MPs that would have been present excluding those that live out of Georgetown,” he explained.
At about 6:13 pm on Tuesday, the AFC’s Cathy Hughes made a post on her Facebook page calling out the government over its non-invitation of the Opposition.
In the post, she wrote “…visited the Parliament a few hours ago. My heart bleeds-a flurry of activity there, as they prepare for what must be a flag-raising event in a few hours. Imagine the parliament of Guyana which must independently represent all Guyanese has a national event on its grounds to which all of its Members of Parliament have not been invited. Haven’t heard the Speaker object and say no we must do better.”
It added”…spoke with the Clerk who explained that even he was not invited. Why desecrate the grounds of our parliament like this? If this is now a government or PPP affair and not a national celebration of 52 years as a Republic then I suggest any other location be used including Babu John or The grounds of freedom house. Surely we are better than this. Another sad day that highlights our descent into the abyss. God help poor Guyana. What a state she finds herself in!”
