…doesn’t have to explain
Asked about why he didn’t tell Burnham he disagreed with one of the latter’s decisions, Hamilton Green replied wryly, “Who could tell Burnham anything once he made up his mind?” And that’s precisely the reason Guyana’s on the brink of another dictatorship right now. Burnham set the mould for those who’d want to follow in his footsteps – such as Prezzie who promised to do just that.
Burnham didn’t give a hoot as to the consequences of his decisions for Guyana. Asked in a documentary whether he’d change course for Guyana if his “socialist experiment” failed, Burnham replied the experiment would continue come hell or high water. As he announced in Parliament, “Back to back; belly to belly; I don’t give a damn, I done dead already!!”
So those who think Prezzie will change his mind on the GECOM appointment or will offer reasons for his decision just wasted a thought. Why should the President give reasons, when he is a General, “moulding” Guyanese to fulfil the vision of the Founder Leader? Does anyone out there really believe Burnham traipsed around in a full General’s outfit because he ran out of civilian garb?
Pleeease!! And Prezzie’s a REAL general, who spent his whole life having EVERYONE bowing and scraping. When a General gives an order to jump, there’s just one choice: “How high, sir?!” Now on the matter of offering reasons, the Judge told him that based on the political realities, Guyana needs “discussion and compromise” and he really should tell the people why he rejected those 18 nominees.
But Prezzie’s response was to demand he be shown where in the Constitution he’s supposed to do that. But that’s being quite disingenuous, isn’t it? Where in the Constitution did he find the criteria he set Jagdeo as to who’s a suitable candidate? And that’s the nub of the question, isn’t it? A constitution cannot specify the rule for every contingency a country will confront for all times.
What it does is to propose PRINCIPLES that should be used as guidelines in those contingencies. Now it’s patently clear to anyone not seized of a maximum leader syndrome that Art 161 (2) was inserted in 2000 to encourage “consultations and compromise”. This is the SPIRIT of the constitutional rule – which must be followed if the leader is serious about “obeying” the Constitution. In England, for instance, there’s no written constitution, the principles have been solidified into traditions that have a greater force than the stated law.
As soon as any leader begins to insist on following the LETTER of the Constitution, know that he’s playing games!
Dangerous games for the people.
…and the ABC countries
The local plenipotentiaries of the ABC countries are being importuned to intervene in Prezzie’s unilateral appointment of the GECOM Chair. The local and domestic Guyanese implorers are begging them to “do the right thing”. But they should know no nation’s ever done the “right thing” for purely moral purposes. It’s always about their “national interest”, isn’t it?
And this isn’t a theoretical thing for us. Just peruse the declassified US files between 1960 and 1968 out there in the worldwide web. There, the AB (“C” wasn’t needed!) pretty much created the Maximum Leader Burnham, funded his PNC and closed their eyes to the rigging and other crimes against the Guyanese people – because it suited their interest.
Guyanese shouldn’t take this personally – it really had nothing to do with them, per se. What they should do is look at Spike Lee’s movie “Do the Right Thing” and listen to Public Enemy’s title song: “You got to fight the power, fight the power, fight the powers that be.”
…and pork-barrel politics
The Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman just gave an ANNUAL GRANT of G$100 million – from the Ministry’s coffers? – to UG for “technological pedagogy”.
So whatever happened to the US$10 million – or GY$2 BILLION that was given for the same purposes by the World Bank?