Two great accomplishments of Bharrat Jagdeo

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,

There is a well funded machinery in Guyana bent on destroying the reputation of President Jagdeo. The agents of this machinery go after the president night and day – in the newspapers, on TV, and on the internet. The people who do this compete for the prized trophy of coming up with the most outrageous accusations against the president and his cabinet. They also attack the president’s party – the PPP.

But try as they might, and notwithstanding the damage that they might do for electoral or personal reasons, they won’t be able to erase some of the accomplishments of this president. I will deal with only two of them today.

The first of these is of immediate relevance. In a few short months, President Jagdeo will demit office and a new president will be sworn in. The event will look natural, as if it were a well entrenched fact of political life in Guyana. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.

Let me make this clear – it was the PPP government, and specifically President Jagdeo who signed term limits into law in Guyana. By doing this, Mr. Jagdeo enabled a constitutional instrument that will always allow for the changing of the country’s political leadership at the very top. The opposition in Guyana has never had it so good.

The second issue is actually quite mind-boggling, and takes us back to the media in Guyana. Despite the daily attacks on the PPP and on President Jagdeo, the head of state has insisted on press freedom and the unobstructed right of the media in the country to practice their craft. He is uncompromising about it and does not even entertain any discussion about limiting free expression. Any suggestion to the contrary would come from the same hostile anti-government media, or from political wanabees who know not of what they speak. The proof is, after all, in the pages of Kaieteur News on a daily basis.

It is important to keep in mind that unlike many countries like Canada where press freedom is a given, in Guyana it is a recent practice. The same is true with political succession. In countries like Canada and the U.S. prime ministers and presidents are replaced with great ease. In Guyana we are only now getting used to the idea of a head of state being succeeded through the ballot box.

No matter what the anti-government extremists write, they won’t be able to take these basic facts away from President Jagdeo.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Randy Persaud

Related posts