Editorial

We have just over a month to go until our fifth election since President Desmond Hoyte ushered in the current phase of our democratic process in 1992, by not only holding the nation’s first free and fair elections since 1964 but also recognising the result.

The courtship drama that plays out every five years in Guyana is in full swing.

For most of this year, the United States has been visibly in pursuit not only of persons in the Caribbean allegedly involved in drug trafficking, but in so doing, the authorities seem to have been seeking to ensure that those perceived to be involved in behaviour deemed unacceptable, do not received the protection of  Caribbean governments.

Nothing that we have read or heard about Mr. Ralph Turpin has caused us to believe that he was anything but an ordinary Guyanese, a man, apparently, of modest means, possessed of a caring spirit and a passion for reaching out to those most in need.

On September 22, 2011, the government mysteriously decided against proceeding with two bills to liberalise the telecommunications sector: The Telecom-munications Bill, 2011 and the Public Utilities Commission (Amendment) Bill.

Gecom’s Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) performed an important service before, during and after the 2006 elections, and has been resuscitated again for the purpose of the 2011 elections.

Every election in the Caribbean produces broad, often uncritical assertions about democracy, usually with the implicit assumption that those hymning the loudest praises are best placed to lead the country beyond the miserable, hidebound ideological fixity of its incumbents.

An interesting analysis, entitled CARICOM’s Future in Doubt, was published by the Economist Intelligence Unit on October 5.

Guyanese are known for their love of partying. We have moved from a situation some years ago where there was a dearth of entertainment in the country to there now being a tad too much.

Increasing signs of worry among the major economic powers of the world – particularly the Western world, about the future of the global economy must give pause to those of us who have little power to influence the developments which are the causes of their present discontents.

President Bharrat Jagdeo still appears far from ready to have the lights turned out on his tenure as the country’s Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of its armed forces.

Testimony by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Luncheon in the libel matter brought by President Jagdeo has cast revealing light on the Pradoville 2 Scheme and the levels of contract between the directorates of political parties, in this case the ruling PPP/C and the PNCR.

This is a very strange election season. It lacks any kind of fizz.

The citation for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize – awarded simultaneously to the activists Leymah Gbowee (Liberia)  Tawakkul Karman (Yemen) and the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Liberia – notes that  “[w]e cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society.”

Some six months after Michel Martelly was announced as the winner of Haiti’s presidential election, the country finally has a prime minister in the person of Dr Garry Conille, following his ratification by the Senate on Tuesday.

They are among some of the most undervalued people in this society.

Over the last three years the region has experienced now three unanticipated departures from political leadership, interestingly enough in the countries which we have designated in Caricom terms as the More Developed Countries.

Virtually overnight, the image of President Hugo Chávez has been transformed.

There is no doubt that the commentary which was presented by Mr Anthony Vieira on CNS Channel Six on May 4 this year and which has now been listed as the reason for the suspension of the licence of CNS Channel Six for four months contained scandalous allegations which no responsible broadcaster should permit without ensuring that there was some basis or evidence to sustain it. 

On September 6 this year, Guyana formally submitted her claim for an extended continental shelf of 150 nautical miles to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).