Dear Editor,
MAKE no mistake about it, Guyana’s March 2, 2020 elections remain contentious, not because we do not know that the APNU/AFC ‘Coalition’ received the overall majority of votes, but because of efforts to sabotage the work of GECOM, instigate fraudulent voting, and disrupt our electoral system. It is clear, from the behaviour, language and posturing of PPP/C representatives and persons linked to the party that the party invested heavily in an all-out effort to design chaos, claim disenfranchisement and victimization by said chaos, and blame it all on GECOM and the ‘Coalition’.
The continued impasse is the sole responsibility of Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP/C, who once appealed a ruling that upheld the constitutional provision which limits Presidents from serving more than two terms in office, because this lends itself to a dictatorship, among other unsavory effects. This is the same person who organised a group calling themselves ‘Guardians of Democracy’; the same person that refused to call Local Government Elections in Guyana for 23 years. This is not democracy; in fact, it is the machination of someone whose intentions are bad for the people of this country.
His refusal to give way to a new type of political dispensation, leadership and culture of cooperation, and his belief that he is the be-all and end-all of the PPP/C and Guyana is the type of thinking that resulted in the PPP/C, under his leadership, becoming the most corrupt and one of the most violent governments ever in the English-speaking Caribbean. Even the United States, Canada and the UK have several PPP/C representatives on their watch list; in some instances, the visas of some of these persons were revoked.
You see, some political parties and politicians subscribe to the tactic of divide, conquer and rule. This tactic has been used to engineer slavery, conquests and forced labour, but it has also been used to manufacture conflict by governing politicians who use the said conflict to justify State-sponsored violence against people they perceive to be their political competition, or aligned to them. What is this competition I speak of? It is not even a competition, but, sadly, many of our so-called politicians think of elections as competition for the power, money and privilege. Elections are not a competition like a race, football or cricket match. However, some Guyanese politicians operate like it is. They feel that once their party wins an election, this means they can do as they please; the spoils of the victor.
Rather than being motivated by continuously improving lives of and service to the people, like improving the role of our education system in shaping civic-minded and multi-skilled Guyanese for example, or boosting our capacity to increase value-added production of our agricultural and other natural resources, these politicians are motivated by money, power and privilege. And since these indecent, dishonest and treacherous politicians have managed to sow seeds of hate, division and distrust among some Guyanese of African and Indian descent for so long, (some Guyanese knowingly and foolishly repeat this hate and divisiveness), they perceive an elections victory as an opportunity enrich themselves by stealing from the State and Guyanese people, and to suppress anyone who disagrees.
Think about it, how many Minsters, associates, party members and even relatives of the former PPP/C-led Government have become multi-millionaires and billionaires, literally overnight? It certainly wasn’t as a result of their salaries from working eight-hour shifts, five days a week. It is more likely they stole money from our treasury, used their privilege and access to information and resources to position themselves for land, business opportunities and so on.
If the goal of securing a majority of the votes, or enough to form a Cabinet was service to the people, I can guarantee that over 50% of Guyanese politicians would make a living otherwise. In fact, I will double down on this bet by saying these persons would not even be living in Guyana right now.
Enter an elections audit. It should be no surprise, then, which measures were taken to: (1) Sabotage the work of GECOM, the electoral system, manipulate the voting process and even intimidate GECOM officials (recall the invasion of the GECOM Command Centre by representatives of the PPP/C, men with guns and several small party representatives in the wee hours of the morning then again one day after in the afternoon) were carried out in the lead up to, on and after elections day, (2) the utterings by Bharrat Jagdeo that the PPP/C will not accept any result showing they did not receive the majority of votes, (3) the resolve by the APNU/AFC Coalition and its supporters that the Coalition received the majority of votes and they too will not accept anything less and (4) our nation’s history with manufactured distrust and polarisation, an elections audit should be welcome. It is hopeful that this audit will unearth all illegalities and the intellectual authors of these as well as propose recommendations on reforming our electoral system, the formation of Cabinet and so forth.
By all means, an elections audit is a useful, perhaps the most useful step we all can take to commence with the work of healing our self-inflicted wounds, the affected institutions of the State and to continue providing improved public services and raising living standards of Guyanese whether you live on the Coast, Hinterland, Corentyne or elsewhere.
Regards,
R. Chung-A-On
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_epaper_04_23_2020