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FM
Former Member

Undiplomatic norms

Posted By Staff Writer On January 18, 2015 @ 5:01 am In Editorial

 

Discretion, tact and subtlety are not characteristics by which the PPP is normally distinguished, and so it came as no particular surprise last week when they went trampling diplomatic niceties underfoot to deliver yet another round of invective against representatives of foreign missions here. Having sent former US Ambassador Brent Hardt off to Washington with a “feral blast,” delivered on that occasion by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, the government this time turned on outgoing British High Commissioner Andrew Ayre, whom Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon labelled a “pariah.”

 

On Monday of last week High Commissioner Ayre had told the media at a news conference that Guyana was on a “dangerous path,” and the fact that parliament had been prorogued on November 10 last year and had not been reconvened was a “clear breach” of the Commonwealth Charter and the Constitution of Guyana. He was also quoted as saying in answer to a question from this newspaper, that “Guyana could be subjected to a critical review because of the breaches of the Commonwealth Charter.” Guyana, of course, is a signatory to that charter.

 

When asked about whether bilateral aid from the UK could be affected, High Commissioner Ayre responded: “Without a parliament there is no parliamentary oversight of development assistance… Clearly the appetite to send money to a country that has no parliamentary oversight is much reduced.” He then went on to ask rhetorically how the British government could justify to its own taxpayers sending development funds in such circumstances.

 

It is this which appears to have caused the government and ruling party apoplexy, and inspired Dr Luncheon to embark on his own personal excursion into calumny. He described Mr Ayre as “terribly dishonourable,” and went on to refer to the “recent EU dishonouring” of its agreement with the Government of Guyana in relation to budgetary support. The Cabinet Secretary accused the British High Commissioner of “sinisterly and conspiratorially” revealing the handiwork of the UK and EU in the matter, at a later stage going on to tell reporters that the threat to withhold development aid was “most dastardly.”

Up to this point no one had ever heard any mention of the European Union withholding budgetary support, let alone as implied by Dr Luncheon, that this might be connected to the suspension of parliament. Be that as it may, the HPS’s grumblings about ‘dastardly’ sanctions ignore the obvious point that Mr Ayre made, namely, that the British government is answerable to its taxpayers for the money it gives in aid. (The same, it might be said, would be true of Europe.) Since the Guyana Government has for a long time now ceased to see the need to be answerable to its taxpayers, it has simply forgotten how real democracies work.

 

If the Head of the Presidential Secretariat favoured the crude approach, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs went for the inapposite one. There it was, burbling in a press release, that Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett had contacted Common-wealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma who had told her there had been no discussion on Guyana either with the British government or its High Commissioner in Georgetown. Needless to say, the British High Commissioner did not say what the ministry is averring he said. As quoted above he told the media that “Guyana could be subjected to a critical review…” but it was “not on the verge of being suspended from the Commonwealth.”

 

There is one of two possibilities here: either Takuba Lodge is so seriously challenged in terms of comprehending the English language that it should be closed down immediately, or Stalinist style it was seeking to bring the UK critic into disrepute by deliberately distorting what was said in order to prove him wrong. One assumes that the first of these possibilities is very unlikely to apply, and so we are left with the second, carried out presumably at the instigation of the government and ruling party. It would not have done either them or the ministry much good; the Commonwealth Secretariat would have soon made it their business to find out exactly what Mr Ayre had said, and the Government of Guyana would have been left looking foolish, if not dissembling.

 

And after all of that, the following day, Foreign Minister Rodrigues-Birkett told the Caricom Community Council of Ministers that an announcement on general elections was “imminent.” A bewildered population could only wonder what Dr Luncheon’s tirade and the Foreign Ministry’s foray into inappositeness could have been all about. Was it just a clumsy way of saving face when they knew they would have to name a poll date soon? Their mood could not have been improved when it emerged that US ChargÉ d’Affaires Bryan Hunt had added a low-key voice to the exchange by telling this newspaper, “I think the primary focus needs to be at this stage on moving towards free and fair elections.”

Conversely, of course, the Minister’s statement to the Caricom Council might just have been a holding tactic, and the word ‘imminent’ is due to undergo a semantic revision at the hands of the inaptly named Freedom House.

 

It has been obvious to everyone for a long time that the PPP is in no hurry to go to elections, for reasons which hardly need elaboration. They probably recognize that there will have to be a national poll this year, but would like to postpone it as long as possible to give them time to dispense largesse in the Amerindian areas, and bring members of their straying heartland constituency back into the fold. They will, of course, also have to sort out internal party matters, including the presidency and prime ministership. Their only consolation may lie in the fact that the opposition, particularly the main opposition, seems a long way from being election-ready either.

 

Whether a date is about to be announced or not, one cannot think that there was anything to be gained by transgressing diplomatic protocols to the extent which Dr Luncheon did by his contumely, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did by its misrepresentation. Guyana is not Russia, or even Venezuela; it is a very small nation which exists in the company of not a few giants, and serious long-term damage may well have been done to our relations with the Western world. No one can know when this country may need to call on the backing of any one of those countries, and if they are lukewarm in providing it in the future, the ruling party and government would only have themselves to blame.

 

The worst of it is, of course, that the Western envoys to whom the PPP/C government has taken exception have principle on their side, while it is the administration which has lost contact with democratic norms. It must be the ultimate irony – more especially considering that Dr Cheddi Jagan spent so much time pleading with the Western nations to intervene and restore democracy here – that there has been a reversal of roles, and the PPP is now in the same position that the PNC found itself in 1992.

 

Lastly, one is forced to reflect on whether the PPP really knows what the word ‘honour’ means.

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". . . The worst of it is, of course, that the Western envoys to whom the PPP/C government has taken exception have principle on their side, while it is the administration which has lost contact with democratic norms. It must be the ultimate irony – more especially considering that Dr Cheddi Jagan spent so much time pleading with the Western nations to intervene and restore democracy here – that there has been a reversal of roles, and the PPP is now in the same position that the PNC found itself in 1992.

 

Lastly, one is forced to reflect on whether the PPP really knows what the word ‘honour’ means."

the PPP is a cornered, dissipated beast; capable of ANYTHING in this fight for its very 'life'

 

we have been in this place before . . . "dangerous" is apt.

 

This is the dark time, my love,
All round the land brown beetles crawl about
The shining sun is hidden in the sky
Red flowers bend their heads in awful sorrow
This is the dark time, my love,
It is the season of oppression, dark metal, and tears.
It is the festival of guns, the carnival of misery
Everywhere the faces of men are strained and anxious
Who comes walking in the dark night time?
Whose boot of steel tramps down the slender grass
It is the man of death, my love, the stranger invader
Watching you sleep and aiming at your dream.

-Martin Carter

FM
Last edited by Former Member

In a democracy the government is answerable to the people since they were elected from amongst the people. So with the current actions of the PPP we can safely assume that we are no longer living in a democracy, but under tyranny or communism. 

Mr.T

The PPP is an abomination they have become worse than the same people they used to criticize.......

 

Shameful, disgraceful and corrupt sons of bitches.

FM
Last edited by Former Member

US Chargé d’Affaires says failure to hold local gov’t polls unfortunate

Posted By Staff Writer On January 18, 2015 @ 5:12 am In Local News | No Comments

The failure to run off local government elections during the current parliament is unfortunate, according to United States Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Bryan Hunt.

“It’s very unfortunate that we did not see local government elections during the life of the current parliament,” Hunt said in an interview with Stabroek News on Thursday, while adding that it would have been a wonderful opportunity for the Guyanese people to have a direct say in how their localities are run. He said after national elections, he hopes and a lot of the international community hope Guyana will be moving towards local government elections.

Local government elections have not been held since 1994 and despite many local and international calls, the Donald Ramotar administration has not moved to hold the polls.

The US-funded Leader-ship and Democracy (LEAD) project, among other things, was aimed at boosting citizens’ engagement with local parliamentarians and improving overall governance.

Hunt said a lot has been learnt during the implementation of the project and the US would like to see more stakeholders involved.

“If we decide to embark on another series of local government election training programmes… we would want to ensure that there are more stakeholders involved in the organisation of those town hall meetings, more civil society involvement, in doing that,” he explained.

Asked about the low turnouts at some of the meetings, Hunt said some had “very reasonable” turnouts in the areas where they were held while at others the turnout was lower than what they would have liked. However, he said this is a situation that occurs anywhere where such a public forum is being run. “Certainly we’ve learned certain things,” he said.

Hunt said it was the first time they had ever tried organising such a project around local government elections and they learnt a great number of things and gained a great deal of information. His expectation is once the local government elections cycle begins, they would be prepared to work again with the Guyana Elections Commission and the government of the day as well as other stakeholders to organise additional town hall meetings to ensure that the broadest possible swathe of the Guyanese electorate is able to have a good understanding of how local government works and what the responsibilities of the local government are, he said.

At the moment, Hunt said the project is focused principally on the training of the parliamentary staff. One of the components is working with the staff of the National Assembly to provide a series of training courses that were identified as critical to improve their support to the parliamentarians and the committees.

It is also working closely with the Women and Gender Equality Commis-sion to identify additional training workshops that can be held on political participation by women in Guyana and discussions are ongoing with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport on various training programmes that can be provided to youth organisations to assist them in improving their abilities to function around the country, Hunt said. Those are the ones anticipated for the time that remains in the LEAD project, he added.

Meanwhile, Hunt also said that over the course of last year the trajectory at the bilateral cooperation level between Guyana and the United States has been reasonably good and there were a number of successes.

He pointed out that the Skills and Knowledge for Youth Empowerment programme continues to assist large numbers of at-risk youth, while there were accomplishments in the PEPFAR programme which seeks to combat HIV/AIDS and there were important transitions to increase the sustainability of the programme over the long term within the Ministry of Health.

There was tremendous progress in working with young people on the Guyana Shines initiative and moving forward with environmental awareness in Georgetown and beyond, Hunt said. He asserted that these initiatives all speak towards a fairly broad and robust base of cooperation between the United Stated and Guyana. He also mentioned the international visitors’ programme, student exchanges and the large number of tourist visas granted as well as the business interests that continue to grow here from the US. In this regard, he highlighted the investment by oil giant Exxon Mobil which is hoping to find oil here.

Challenges also remain, Hunt said. “We had been at the forefront of highlighting the issue of trafficking in persons. I think that’s one where work still remains to be done. I think there is still tremendous work to be done on the scourge of gender-based violence that exists. I think there is still tremendous work that remains to be done in terms of cooperation within the political sphere, within Guyana itself,” he added.

FM
Originally Posted by Chief:

Once again we are witnessing the PPP at their best> Did someone say the PNC was a dictatorship?

Bhai...sorry... Brother Chief, Gilbakka used to call the PNC regime a dictatorship. He joined the PPP and helped fight the dictatorship even though he held a government teaching job and later a public service job.

It was a miracle the dictator didn't fire he rass.

And Gilbakka stayed in Guyana until the dictatorship was removed.

But Bhai...sorry...Brother man, Gilbakka lived to see the PPP out-dictatored the PNC dictatorship by a wide margin.

PNC nepotism? PPP nepotism greater.

PNC extravagance? PPP extravagance bigger.

PNC squandermania? PPP squandermania larger.

PNC bullyism? PPP bullyism stronger.

PNC arrogance? PPP arrogance higher.

PNC death squad? PPP death squad fiercer.

PNC put square pegs in round holes? PPP put round pegs in oblong holes.

Any which way you turn and twist it, what was bad with the PNC is worse with the PPP.

Sometimes I ask myself, why the rass we bothered to push out the PNC?

Talk half and leff half...de skeletons in Freedom House closet, da half.

 

FM
Last edited by Former Member

Gil you and many others like you including Gerhard Ramsaroop and others who were die hard PPP supporters to fight a good cause which was to get rid of the PNC.

 

But you must be given major kudos for your ability to recognize and accept that what the PPP has become is worse than the PNC itself which is what many fought to get rid of.

 

The time has come and the PPP's days are numbered there are many who over the years we have witnessed on this very site that have said enough is enough of the PPP. 

 

The PPP's rope is fast coming to an end. They are terrified to face the people of Guyana there is real fear in freedom house now.

FM
Originally Posted by HM_Redux:

Gil you and many others like you including Gerhard Ramsaroop and others who were die hard PPP supporters to fight a good cause which was to get rid of the PNC.

 

But you must be given major kudos for your ability to recognize and accept that what the PPP has become is worse than the PNC itself which is what many fought to get rid of.

 

The time has come and the PPP's days are numbered there are many who over the years we have witnessed on this very site that have said enough is enough of the PPP. 

 

The PPP's rope is fast coming to an end. They are terrified to face the people of Guyana there is real fear in freedom house now.

Friend, I was not the only one. Many others gave more to the PPP than I did.

In this same GNI community, I know that Churchill, Jalil, Wally and Prashad all struggled alongside the PPP in various ways.

FM
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by HM_Redux:

Gil you and many others like you including Gerhard Ramsaroop and others who were die hard PPP supporters to fight a good cause which was to get rid of the PNC.

 

But you must be given major kudos for your ability to recognize and accept that what the PPP has become is worse than the PNC itself which is what many fought to get rid of.

 

The time has come and the PPP's days are numbered there are many who over the years we have witnessed on this very site that have said enough is enough of the PPP. 

 

The PPP's rope is fast coming to an end. They are terrified to face the people of Guyana there is real fear in freedom house now.

Friend, I was not the only one. Many others gave more to the PPP than I did.

In this same GNI community, I know that Churchill, Jalil, Wally and Prashad all struggled alongside the PPP in various ways.

Agreed I think the numbers are adding up in terms of the amount of former PPP supporters that abhor and actively oppose them today.

FM
Originally Posted by Gilbakka:
Originally Posted by Chief:

Once again we are witnessing the PPP at their best> Did someone say the PNC was a dictatorship?

Bhai...sorry... Brother Chief, Gilbakka used to call the PNC regime a dictatorship. He joined the PPP and helped fight the dictatorship even though he held a government teaching job and later a public service job.

It was a miracle the dictator didn't fire he rass.

And Gilbakka stayed in Guyana until the dictatorship was removed.

But Bhai...sorry...Brother man, Gilbakka lived to see the PPP out-dictatored the PNC dictatorship by a wide margin.

PNC nepotism? PPP nepotism greater.

PNC extravagance? PPP extravagance bigger.

PNC squandermania? PPP squandermania larger.

PNC bullyism? PPP bullyism stronger.

PNC arrogance? PPP arrogance higher.

PNC death squad? PPP death squad fiercer.

PNC put square pegs in round holes? PPP put round pegs in oblong holes.

Any which way you turn and twist it, what was bad with the PNC is worse with the PPP.

Sometimes I ask myself, why the rass we bothered to push out the PNC?

Talk half and leff half...de skeletons in Freedom House closet, da half.

 

Mr. Gilbakka, if someone had told me in 1972 (That is the first time I met you) that you would be saying these words today then I would never have believe it would be possible. Samething goes for Mr.Churchill who I learned about in 1973.  Times have changed.

Wally
Last edited by Wally
Originally Posted by Chief:

What is even more sad is that learned people like Nehru, Yugi, Skeldonman etc are silent on the atrocities by the PPP. 

Good Marnin, I ilke BIG words like ATROCITIES, now Bhai can you be very specific and list at least one Atrocity, ONE, please??

Nehru
Originally Posted by Nehru:
Originally Posted by Chief:

What is even more sad is that learned people like Nehru, Yugi, Skeldonman etc are silent on the atrocities by the PPP. 

Good Marnin, I ilke BIG words like ATROCITIES, now Bhai can you be very specific and list at least one Atrocity, ONE, please??

I've often heard there is no such thing as a stupid question. Well here we are this proves the saying as incorrect.

You and others like yourself have got to be stupid people to not see the corruption of all sorts and killings carried out by this illegal communist government.

cain
Originally Posted by Nehru:
Originally Posted by Chief:

What is even more sad is that learned people like Nehru, Yugi, Skeldonman etc are silent on the atrocities by the PPP. 

Good Marnin, I ilke BIG words like ATROCITIES, now Bhai can you be very specific and list at least one Atrocity, ONE, please??

Too many to list!!

Chief

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