…is PNC’s norm
A lot of people are all het up about the way Granger’s shredding the Constitution into confetti. Not your Eyewitness. He’s said it before, but it looks like he’ll have to say it again: to you and the rest of folks who desire to live a civilised existence, the Constitution may be a sacred document – a social contract – but to the PNC, it is just a piece of paper.
Back in the day when the PPP was preparing for independence which the British had promised would be after the 1961 elections, the former were all up in arms about the Constitution the British would foist on them. Fears of “neo-colonialism” resonated from Robb Street and they had their brilliant young AG, Fenton Ramsahoye, craft a whole new constitution which they were going to propose to the departing Brits. Burnham, who in the meantime had left the PPP, formed the PNC and was plotting with the Brits to stage a “legal” PR coup to overthrow the PPP, announced that he didn’t give a hoot about what constitution the Brits gave him – once he was in power, he’d be able to do whatever the hell he wanted to do!!
And so said; so done!! As soon as he was in fact parachuted into office, Burnham rounded up all the PPP top guns and activists and locked them up at Sibley Hall at Mazaruni Prison! Was that in accordance with the Constitution he’d received from the Brits?? Of course, it wasn’t!! But Burnham declared that the PPP fellas were “terrorists”, plotting to bring down the Government by force!! While walking about the country on his “meet-the-people” tour spouting platitudes of “Peace, Not Conflict”, he blithely extended the Special Detention Orders in force during the racial riots he’d facilitated to bring down the PPP!!
This set the mould for the PNC in relation with Constitutions and the rule of law, which undergirds it and it explains Granger’s cynical attitude as the latest PNC leader, when it comes to obeying the letter much less the spirit of the Constitution. A la Burnham, he runs around unctuously spouting platitudes about the Constitution being “sacrosanct” and yet feigns ignorance about that document’s specific instruction to hold elections 3 months after a successful NCM!!
Like the feint of “terrorism” with which Burnham subverted the Constitution, Granger is analogously using the ploy of “credible” elections – which he orchestrated with his illegal, unilaterally-appointed GECOM Chair. So what next?? Don’t expect Granger to go quietly into the night – which an election will guarantee.
C’mon Diaspora…petition those Congressmen!! C’mon locals, flood the streets.
Remember it was a call from the White House, elicited by President Carter, that threw out Hoyte!!
…to pick a GECOM Chair
As your Eyewitness is diligently pecking away at his keyboard on this piece, the Opposition Leader’s just strolling into the now green-painted Presidential Compound – which he’d occupied for 12 years – to meet Granger on the selection on the next GECOM Chair. Let’s not describe how Granger from the very beginning wanted to have his own man at the helm – the more important question is WHY he wanted that!!
What was so special about Patterson that made him qualified – apart from actually being a judge, which Granger initially insisted was the only qualification necessary? Was he more conversant about bureaucratic matters dealing with fractious factions than, say, Lawrence Latchmansingh, formerly of the UNDP? Of course not!! Was he more familiar with electoral matters than Major General Joe Singh? Of course not!! Joe Singh had actually served as a GECOM Chair – WITH DISTINCTION!!
What Patterson had was loyalty to the PNC!! And this was necessary for fiddling with the elections to ensure they remain in office!!
…but also personal beef
Some observers have wondered why Granger dissed his fellow Armed Forces colleague Major General Joe Singh for the GECOM Chair. That goes back to President Hoyte passing over the desk-bound Granger for the field-oriented Singh to head the Armed Forces in 1990!!