Dear Editor,
October 6th, 2022 marks the 42nd Anniversary of the fraudulent 1980 Constitution. For 42 long years, the PNC and the PPP have ruled by fraud and force, completely unaccountable to the Guyanese nation and immune from prosecution. The notoriously rigged referendum of July 10th, 1978 paved the way for the PNC government to put off general election due in October of that year for another two years while the party formulated its draft which was accepted by its two-thirds parliamentary majority and imposed on the Guyanese nation as the New People’s Constitution. Opposition to the referendum of July 10th, 1978 was widespread and included the PPP, the WPA, other political parties, civil society, and thousands of Guyanese of different races and classes.
The PPP that had boycotted the October 6th parliamentary session that ushered in the Constitution quietly returned to participate in the illegitimate parliament. The ABC+EU turned a blind eye to the electoral frauds and the emergence of a bloody, brutal dictatorship under the PNC omnipotent leader LFS Burnham. There was no organized resistance to the Burnham dictatorship in the aftermath of Walter Rodney’s assassination. But the table turned following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Dr. Jagan was a changed man, having spent 28 years in the political wilderness and had learned from his mistakes. He was a veteran politician, underestimated by the younger generation of political aspirants. With Walter Rodney and Burnham out of the way, he knew that the Guyanese people trusted him and he made many promises of the dawn of a new era and the return of democracy.
He deceived Guyanese that rewriting the Burnham Constitution was first on his agenda fully aware that it would require a two-thirds majority and that the PNC would never agree with destroying Burnham’s legacy. Constitutional reform was next placed on the agenda. In less than a decade, Omai carted off so much gold from Guyana, yet there was no improvement in the living standards of the Guyanese nation nor development. His successor, Jagdeo, used the powers of the Executive President in a manner that made the Burnham era pale dinto insignificance. He grounded the low-income Guyanese into poverty by imposing a 16 % VAT on every item that sent the cost of living skyrocketing and gave away our timber to Bai Shan Lin and our Canje and Kaieteur blocks to the big oil barons.
Given that the PPP leaders were granted immunity under the Burnham Constitution, they returned less than 5 years later with an electoral victory over the PNC led coalition of parties which by some strange twist of fate included Walter Rodney’s Party the WPA and the AFC. After 23 years of tyrannical rule by the PPP, Guyanese fell for the PNC Coalition’s electoral ploy of ‘Vote like a Boss’, jobs for young people, the good life, constitutional reform, and more. Guyanese quickly found out that the good life was only for the PNC and their acolytes. Nothing had changed, instead, poor people who were making a living outside the Stabroek market were forcibly removed. Mind you, these were supporters of the APNU + AFC. When parliamentary sessions were in progress half of the city was closed to the public, even under Burnham and Jagdeo this never happened. The APNU+AFC became Guyana’s worse nightmare.
Many people were happy to see the last of them, and hoped after 19 months of titanic struggle and Covid lockdown, that the PPP government under Irfaan Ali would have brought them some relief, especially with the ABC+EU countries advocating the need for Constitutional and electoral reform. But after two years and three mammoth sized budgets, gyd$1.5 trillion, the plight of the poor and powerless Guyanese continues to worsen. Constitutional reform has been relegated to the back burner. The PPP has clearly shown that our oil/gas wealth benefits only the political elites, party loyalists, their families, supporters, and financial backers, and from time to time behaves as benevolent rulers, giving out a little handout here and there.
After 42 years of living under the fraudulent Burnham Constitution, it is difficult to predict when Guyanese will awaken to the reality of what’s happening…It took the Chileans over four decades to rid themselves of the draconian Pinochet Constitution and that process is still ongoing but Guyana is not Chile, our historical circumstances differ. Walter Rodney in his short lifetime had shown the way forward.
Sincerely,
Desmond Alli
General Secretary
Guyana United Artists
