Henry Jeffrey

Last week, in response to the Alliance for Change (AFC) letter stating its intent to move a motion of no-confidence in his government under article 106 of the Constitution, President Donald Ramotar stated that he and his party were ready for any eventual elections, and then he did a very strange thing, which suggests the opposite.

No one vaguely familiar with liberal foreign policy analysis could fail to ponder the possibility of an expanding liberal zone of peace.

The aim of sound diplomacy … is the maintenance of amicable relations between sovereign states.

Arguably the most important issue raised in Mr. David Granger’s independence sojourn in New York was his statement of the kind of governance he would like to see developed in Guyana, and in my view, unless we want to unwittingly end up in an autocracy worse than any we have had so far, the Leader of the Opposition had better make his position much clearer and we had better pay attention to it.

Nothing exemplifies more clearly the difficulties of doing politics in Guyana and the need for clear strategic thinking than Mr.

The demand by some PPP supporters for the PNC to apologise for its misdeeds, or to at least admit that it made mistakes, demonstrates more of a triumph for PPP propaganda than for reality.

According to Prime Minister Hinds, Cheddi Jagan believed that national unity between the races and classes was so important to nation building that throughout his political life he attempted “new, bold and courageous alternatives to bring our people together” but died without his goal being realised.

Last week, I came upon the prime minister’s 2014 Cheddi Jagan Lecture “Dr Cheddi Jagan’s commitment to National Unity and National Development” (Office of the Prime Minister, April 2014) and immediately felt depressed.

Underlying the political culture of all countries is the view that morality is different in private life and politics.

“Advances for human rights and democracy depend first and foremost on the courage and the commitment of men and women working for reform in their own countries.

A few weeks ago, after reading the press release “GHRA [Guyana Human Rights Association] not convinced about purpose or process of Commission of Inquiry into death of Dr.

“The finance minister in a Third World country should have the ability to present his annual budget as a package that cannot be amended, only approved or denied as a whole ….

When the PPP decided to proceed along its current course of political dominance, it did not know that it would lead it to having to deny important aspects of its “glorious struggle” against PNC authoritarianism, for which so many of its supporters have suffered.

The records of the Ministry of Education will show that in 2003/4, when I was the minister, it began “discussions with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security (MLHSS) to discuss areas of possible collaboration, e.g.

The major political quarrels in Guyana are reflective of a fundamental structural distributive difficulty: our society, founded as it is in an entrenched racial division that frustrates regime change, does not and will not allow any single political party to be perceived as fairly distributing the results of our collective national endeavours.

In Guyana politicians on all sides proclaim their concern for the poor and commitment to ease their condition, but over the years, knowingly or unknowingly, many of their proposals have undermined their professed concern.

The PPP/C could not for one moment have thought that it would have been politically where it is today when it took the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) (Amendment) Bill to parliament on 7th May 2013.

The leaderships of the political parties in Guyana talk a good democratic game but do very little to enhance the democratic processes in their own parties; give local people more control over their own lives and over those who claim to represent them nationally. 

On 27th February, the People’s Progressive Party, A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance for Change without the permission of the Guyana Trades Union Congress divvied-up the latter’s property and processes.

The regime may feel that the sovereignty of the Guyanese people can only be violated by foreigners, but in this it is mistaken, and no one will take its cry of national sovereignty seriously if it is itself seen as a violator of the sovereignty of its own people.