Category: Eyewitness

…of barbaric reversion In Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, the protagonist Kurtz emerges from the jungle where he’d been trying to impart “civilisation” to the natives. So shocked at what he’d become, he could only mumble, “The horror!! The horror!!” As a Polish refugee in 19th Century Britain, Conrad was a keen observer of the striving of “outsiders” to join the world of civilised manners and mores. He couldn’t miss the sometimes-grotesque efforts of some who imitated the forms, but missed the substance of what it took to rise above…

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…the race card When you’re a two-bit, wannabe, tin-pot, Third-World dictator and you’ve run out of options to defend your illegal hold on power, what do you do?? Well, if you’re David Granger trying doggedly to walk in the footsteps of your dictator-mentor Forbes Burnham, you play the race card!! If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, race is the last refuge of the ersatz dictator!! Stung by the Ambassadors of the US, UK, and the EU observing that his government was in “breach” of the Constitution for…

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…the constitutional crisis The Constitution of a country is supposed to address its political questions – those that have to do ultimately with power, that is, which crop up as the people go about their business. The Constitution is like a contract where the citizens of the country set up the terms that’ll govern the institutions running the state. The state has the ultimate sanction of using force, if necessary, to ensure that it’s laws – as encompassed by the Constitution or emanating from it – are upheld. A citizen…

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…for elections? The Carter Center made an invaluable contribution to Guyana and Guyanese back in 1992 when after two years of “behind the scene” and “on the scene” work, they were able to shepherd through the first “free and fair” elections in 28 years. Fast forward another twenty eight years and we’re once again in need of some help to facilitate another such elections. This weekend, the Carter Center’s back cause clearly, we haven’t been able to get our act (electorally) in all that time. There’s hope in some local…

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…and the constitution Every Sunday, the man who so much craves to be Prime Minister again – even though he complained bitterly he was gypped by Granger of his promised powers and his party has selected Ramjattan – gets a chance to brownnose his way into the PNC’s good graces. There’s his weekly Chronic column he has to justify the outrage de jour of the PNC!! This Sunday, it was the constitutional crisis that’ll be precipitated on Sept 18 since the PNC-led government will become illegal since elections should’ve been…

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…for elections? The Carter Center made an invaluable contribution to Guyana and Guyanese back in 1992 when after two years of “behind the scene” and “on the scene” work, they were able to shepherd through the first “free and fair” elections in 28 years. Fast forward another twenty eight years and we’re once again in need of some help to facilitate another such elections. This weekend, the Carter Center’s back cause clearly, we haven’t been able to get our act (electorally) in all that time. There’s hope in some local…

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…larwah The cluelessness of this PNC-led Government knows no bounds when it comes to economic decision-making that would redound to Guyana’s development. Or is it really cluelessness? On the contract Trotman “negotiated” with those IOCs, we all know he can give Basil Williams a run for his money for cluelessness. But, even then, can we really believe that, after he’d gone to Tanzania to learn how they were dealing with their new petroleum find and saw they negotiated a 15% royalty from the IOCs, he could boast about a 2%…

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…integrity The Chairman of the Integrity Commission revealed that, last year, 42% of the public officials who’re required BY LAW to file declarations of their assets failed to do so. 41 of the defaulters were MPs, mostly from the Government, and included President Granger! Declarations are supposed to be filed by June 30th annually, and this year the record’s worse, even though the deadline was extended to Aug 31. The defaulters now number 65%, almost two-thirds of the cohort of folks who’re supposed to be running this country on our…

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…equivalence One of the most insidious (and annoying) behaviour that pops up with great regularity as the political climate heats up is some folks wallowing in false equivalencies as they strive to walk some thin line of political correctness. “False equivalence”, of course, is what happens when someone tries to convince you that two things should be given equal weight in your considerations as you come to any given decision, while those two things aren’t in any way actually equivalent. Take Justice Claudette Singh in her new job as GECOM…

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…in elections Over the last nine months, your Eyewitness has watched with alarm as the PNC launched its rear-guard actions to remain in office against all odds. The odds, however, were set for players who obeyed the rules of the game and the PNC has consistently reminded us over its sixty-year existence that they don’t give a hoot about rules. Our Constitution, of course, embodies the rules from which all other rules flow in governing this country, but the PNC flaunted its cynicism to the nation and the world when…

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