Dear Editors,
When the APNU/AFC coalition won the general elections of May 2015, the country had voted for, and had high hopes for change. Even Guyanese who did not vote in the elections gave the new Government their support, and a chance to prove themselves. However, as events unfolded, and the new Government settled into office, slowly, the people of this country began to realise that a hoax had been played on us.
The range of condemnation and accusations that were levelled against the PPP/C turned out to be hype, and suspicion, and excessive noise. All the AFC did to get into power was capitalise on the disenchantment of the people.
The AFC has turned out to be the biggest hoax played on the people of Guyana. After all the campaign promises made immediately upon getting the power the people gave to them, the AFC supported a 5 percent raise in salary for public servants and a 50 percent raise in salary for Cabinet. Rates and taxes were increased across the board, and cost of living immediately increased after the coalition went into office. A minister is quoted in sections of the media on October 7, 2015 as asking why he should work for the same salary in public office that he paid one of his attorneys when he was in private practice.
Beyond salary issues, more signs of an unjust and incompetent administration that was misusing its power to pursue its own agenda began to emerge. Carifesta Avenue is now a monument to secret military involvement in civilian Police operations. The military invasion of Kaieteur National Park and the detaining of a cameraman who wanted to verify the boundaries that were the source of contention were other acts of aggression against the people of this nation, and an assault on the media. The parking meter fiasco and subsequent protest action in the city of Georgetown, as well as the teachers being forced into taking to the streets while the Government Ministers were on holiday have helped the People of this nation to become aware that the agenda of the political elite – a NEW Government — is not in alignment with the agenda of their campaign promises. One can only wonder as to the causes for a NEW Government to be so insensitive to the needs of the people.
Beyond insensitivity, we find contempt from no less a person than the President of the nation. If we carefully analyse the behaviour, utterances and actions of the President, we will find that a pattern has begun to emerge that can support a theory that the President is pursuing an agenda beyond the responsibilities given to him by the people of the nation when the coalition was elected into office. Firstly, the President had a candidate earmarked to be the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission. He condemned over a dozen Guyanese as not ‘fit and proper’, nor possessing the ‘integrity, impartiality and independence’ required for the role. The only suitable person for the role was the President’s personal choice. The pattern is to attack the character of the citizens involved, arrogate to himself the higher morality, and then appoint his choice, even outside of the constitution.
This pattern was repeated once again after the GECOM fiasco, and allowed the President to interfere directly in the operations of the Guyana Police Force. It began with “an alleged plot to assassinate the President,” and a series of activities and events followed that led to the removal of Seelall Persaud and David Ramnarine and the selection of a candidate whom the President found to be suitable and having the ‘integrity’ and being ‘intelligent and impartial’.
Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall advised the nation that a Commissioner of Police cannot be forced to take leave; nor can he, according to Article 225 of the Guyana Constitution, be removed from office for misbehaviour, unless a special tribunal is convened. Once again, in the removal of Mr Seelall Persaud, we have the Government of Guyana operating outside of the Constitution, interfering in the operations of the Guyana Public Service.
Sincerely,
Sandra Khan