The arguments made by the Government’s lawyers and others to the CCJ, seeking to deny that the no-confidence motion was validly passed by our National Assembly on December 21, 2018, forced one participant to observe that the Government is suffering from the misapprehension that it is ruling Guyana as a monarchy, rather than as a Republic. And it is this misapprehension that has brought us to the pass where even the august Justices had to wonder wistfully why the case had to be brought in front of them, and not…
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Being a (hyphenated) Guyanese
By Ravi Dev In his remarks last week at the dedication of the Indian Arrival Monument, President Granger emphasised that “the nation is multicultural”, and that “little attention was paid by those who brought us together (as) to how these various groups with different cultures would coexist cohesively. It is the challenge of the present generation to overcome those differences and to continue to construct a cohesive country.” But he ignored the insight of MG Smith, who pointed out that if the different cultural segments were ‘differentially incorporated’ into the…
Read MoreHistory has a way of repeating itself
During the recent hearings at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on matters relating to the December 21, 2018 No-confidence Motion (NCM), the Attorney General was reported as issuing a warning of dire and catastrophic consequences if the decision goes against the Government. His warning was in the context of a possible decision ordering elections probably with the use of the current voters’ list. The Government is headstrong for a new list which would take months for new registration. They demanded it in what is believed to be a deliberate…
Read MoreIndian Arrival: Silencing and Erasure
By Ravi Dev Guyana’s Indian Arrival Day should remind us of leaders in the Caribbean in general, and those in Guyana in particular, who are refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the descendants of the indentured Indians as a Caribbean people, entitled to the patrimony of their respective countries as citizens of those countries. Early on politically, there was their refusal to acknowledge as rational and valid the concerns of the Indians of Guyana about being swamped in a Federation of the West Indies, which those same leaders had worked…
Read MoreTransformational projects
The Government continues to bask as it slowly completes a few projects which were envisaged and commenced by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration just prior to the May 2015 General Elections. Despite serious accusations of not delivering the initial intended expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), the Government takes credit for the new structure now in place as it has done with the Indian Arrival Monument. Nothing is wrong with this or any Government continuing developmental projects and policies started by its predecessor. Since benefits are intended…
Read MoreThe efficiency of State Agencies
Recently, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government held outreaches in some parts of the country. Those engagements were intended to take Government to the people and it appears they will continue with probably more intensity as elections are in the air. It was precisely elections that triggered the outreaches; elections that should have been held within the three-month period that followed the passage of the No-confidence Motion on December 21, 2018. Government found ways through the courts to delay the constitutionally mandated elections. However, an appeal,…
Read MorePrivations, arrivals and departures
With “Indian Arrival Day” days away, and against a background of 7000 mostly Indian Guyanese fired sugar workers struggling to survive at Wales, Rose Hall, and Skeldon, we revisit the devastating conditions that brought Indians here as immigrants. Sadly, after the depredations of the PNC — starting from the 1970s — had worked to replicate those conditions, a second migration of Indian Guyanese to the Caribbean, Suriname, Venezuela, the US, Canada and elsewhere was initiated; and this has again become intensified. Deteriorating conditions in Venezuela have forced several thousand Indian…
Read MorePower to the people!
The issue of the legitimacy of rulership has been an ancient preoccupation of mankind ever since we crept out of caves and formed settlements wherein we were forced to devise rules for choosing leaders. Initially, it was probably a matter of self-selection, with the man who could wield the largest club enforcing his selection of himself as the most suitable candidate. From that, it was not long before those rulers were legitimised by the newly developed religions, which sanctified the notion of the “divine right of kings” to rule. In…
Read MoreProviding decent jobs for young people
Unemployment and poverty are two of the main challenges that countries, including Guyana, are faced with at present. Unemployment leads to financial crisis and reduces the overall purchasing capacity of a nation. This in turn results in persons getting in the bracket of poverty followed by increasing burden of debt. It is true that unemployment and poverty are mostly common in the less developed and developing economies. For example, just a few days ago it was reported in the media in Guyana that there is a whopping 40 per cent…
Read MoreThe real conflict
Witnessing the upsurge of ethnic tensions amidst the increased polarisation in our society following the successful No-confidence Motion (NCM) in the National Assembly, there are renewed calls for “constitutional change” to resolve the political crisis that is seen as behind it all. “If only the PPP and PNC could gather around a table and come to a settlement!” I wish it were that simple. As I have been saying for three decades, our conflict is so intractable because it challenges the premises on which our political institutions are based. It…
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