A 2020 election date has restored some natural fairness and legitimacy to our democracy
Dear Editor,
I count myself not exactly as Allan Fenty puts it in his letter in SN yesterday, “as among the mass of people who are in full congratulatory mode over PNC Leader David Granger’s guile of current success and triumph.” More exactly, I count myself among those who believe that a 2020 election date has restored some natural fairness and legitimacy to our democracy. For I do not see a 2020 election date as giving the coalition government extra time. Rather, I see it as restoring most of its earned regulation game time.
Fortunately, many today have not forgotten what the 2015 election result meant at a personal and national level for our soul and spirit after 23
years of PPP excesses. And though one may have been concerned over the avoidable missteps by the coalition government, nothing could justify what must be the most callous and selfish political act by an MP in the form of vote #33. For many Guyanese, the use of the NCM guillotine did not fit the claimed government crimes. Moreover, they did not ignore the allegation of bribery and collusion surrounding vote #33.
That vote #33 was an act of treachery, that the government exercised its rights to take legal action, that the courts interpreted the constitution the way they did, that GECOM did not buckle to the reckless demand for elections with all possible shortcuts and jeopardies, have all combined to make a 2020 election date acceptable to many. If people are in a congratulatory mode, as Fenty puts it, I suspect it is due to a feeling of redress, given the scant regard paid to their individual and collective desire, as expressed in the 2015 election, first by Charrandass and then by the PPP and the other advocates of fast and dirty new elections.
What Fenty, however, did not mention in his letter is that many of the, as he termed it, diehard loyalist PNC members and supporters continue to hope that the coalition government would use its remaining regulation playtime to demonstrate more that it cares, that it can deliver real benefits quickly where it matters, and that it can capture the public imagination with an exciting vision for the rapid development of youths, families, communities, regions and the nation.
Yours faithfully, Sherwood Lowe