`In Guyana, we have recently seen official inquisitions into the tax status of NGOs, calls for new laws to ‘regulate’ NGOs, and public campaigns of vilification against particular NGOs and their leaders. There are shades of autocracy here, without a doubt. And Guyana has also seen ‘highest level’ admonitions of judges carrying out their duties in good faith.’
Former Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Dr Bertrand Ramcharan has opined that Guyana is precariously poised between democracy and autocracy.
Ramcharan, in a column in today’s Stabroek News, underlined what he saw as autocratic tendencies in the current government and the predilection of the opposition PNCR towards the rigging of elections.
Both of these tendencies, he posited, have placed the country at a precipice with elections approaching next year.
Framing his argument in the backdrop of a recent book by Anne Applebaum entitled Autocracy Inc, Ramcharan cited the author’s declaration that “There is no liberal world order anymore, and the aspiration to create one no longer seems real. But there are liberal societies, open and free countries that offer a better chance for people to live useful lives than closed dictatorships do. They are hardly perfect. Those that exist have deep flaws, profound divisions, and terrible historical scars. But that’s all the more reason to defend and protect them.”