President, PNCR leaders should see no-confidence vote as opportunity to change image of party

Once again, Guyana seems to have come to the crossroad. The direction this country would embark on will depend on what decisions and actions that the PNCR-led APNU+AFC takes. The question is will they take actions that would help to entrench and strengthen democracy or will they, as the PNCR has done so often, take us down the path towards undemocratic governance with all its known terrible consequences?

A comment by an unidentified CARICOM official was that that body was fed-up with dealing with Guyana and Haiti. The cycles of regression are much too regular.

While the frustration is understandable, this is an unfortunate comment. CARICOM has to be prepared for and must stand up to its responsibilities as a genuine body with concerns for the exercising of democratic governance in the Caribbean.

What a lot of political commentators shy away from is to call a spade a spade. It was the PNC- led government, and even at times in the opposition, that has almost always been responsible for Guyana’s misfortune.

In the 1950s and 1960s that Party colluded with the colonial powers to stop the achieving of Guyana’s Independence under the PPP.

In the post-independence period it was the PNC regime that instituted rigged elections in our country. It corrupted the whole state apparatus, including the Legislature and the Judicial branches of Government. It developed a political and autocratic dictatorship based on race.

That impacted heavily on the economy of this country. Our once promising country and proud people were reduced to a state of destitution. Thousands of persons had to stand in line for the most basic of items. Our infrastructure, social and physical, collapsed and was in a state of disrepair.

It is those conditions that led to mass migration from Guyana. Today, there are probably more Guyanese living abroad than at home. We became a laughing stock when our visiting relatives were bringing in bread, potatoes, sardines, etc. for their families.

As the regime became more and more unpopular, it resorted to heavy repression, including political assassinations.

While in opposition from 1992, the PNC, in pursuit of political goals, led demonstrations and related unrest. Criminal elements were baptized as freedom fighters and were used to create mayhem. Policemen and other security forces came under direct attack resulting in many deaths – defenceless citizens were set upon, beaten, robbed and even killed in some instances.

They stood by cold-heartedly while the people of Buxton were being terrorized and held hostage by criminals. Despite their vicious attacks on successive democratically elected PPP/C governments and despite the mass, vile and exaggerated propaganda about corruption, Guyana still made genuine progress.

The period 1992 to 2015 saw Guyana move from being a mere Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) to being described as an Upper Middle Income Developing country.

That was a result of the democratic governance of the PPP/C. The achievements showed that, despite its imperfections, democracy and democratic governance is the most superior form of administration.

There is so much we can be proud of. We demonstrated our phenomenal capacity in hosting the best CARIFESTA ever. It was done in the shortest period of time after The Bahamas had said it could not undertake the venture at the time.

We showcased ourselves to the world in hosting World Cup Cricket. We increased our all-round capabilities and demonstrated our abilities to organize mega international events.

Now our democracy is being threatened and all our gains could easily be lost. This is like history repeating itself as occurred in 1964.

The APNU+AFC regime has had a vote of No Confidence against it. It is required to resign and put in place arrangements for Free and Fair elections in 90 days.

Despite the remarks by the President about honouring the Constitution their actions seem to be leading to frustrating the process.

In the first place, they have taken the matter to court. The main reason is to slow down the process. The court has been regularly used in this way, to stall and frustrate important national matters.

Three years since an Election Petition has been put to the court by the PPP, no attempt is being made to hear it. I am aware too of other issues of a Constitutional nature which seem to have been lost in the court system.

The Elections Commission is not meeting at this critical time to deal with preparing for elections. The octogenarian appointed by the President is not well, therefore, everything is at a standstill! Administrative methods are being used to the maximum to extend the life of this

it. regime even though the people have lost confidence in

Our country needs to have elections at the soonest. Failure to do so will have grave negative consequences on every aspect of our lives.

The President and the PNCR leaders should see this as an opportunity to change the image of that Party and turn it from being an anti-democratic force to becoming a champion of democracy, one where they can oversee Free, Fair and Transparent Elections!

They can go down in the history of Guyana as standing up to promote normal democratic practices. This is what is going to help our country to move forward.

Any other course, despite good intentions, will be disastrous!

I hope in the interest of Guyana and the people they will make the right choice.

Yours faithfully, Donald Ramotar Former President