Granger’s continued hold on power… Guyana being pushed towards its worst constitutional crisis – Ram

Granger’s continued hold on power… Guyana being pushed towards its worst constitutional crisis – Ram

 Feb 13, 2019  News 0 Comments

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By holding on to power, President David Granger is “pushing Guyana towards the worst constitutional crisis in its history”.
This is the view of Attorney-at-law, Christopher Ram.

President David Granger

Ram said that President Granger continues to ignore Article 106 (7) of the Constitution, which imposes on the Government the primary duty to hold elections within ninety days from the passage of the No Confidence Motion. He said that this is despite the Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire’s pronouncement that the Cabinet and President automatically resigned on the passage of the no-confidence motion.
The Attorney-at-law then pointed out that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Administration and its Executive are fully aware that election should be held in 90 days unless the timeline is extended by a two-thirds majority. Yet, GECOM is not operating accordingly.
“But this in no way takes President Granger and the APNU+AFC off the hook,” said Ram.
Ram said that the Constitution provides for the eventuality where the Government and the President fail to comply with Article 106 (7).
Ram said, “President Granger seems to have argued that the country cannot be without a President, since there must be a Head of State and Commander of the Armed Forces. I submit that if the President thinks he can be the beneficiary of his Government’s own obstinacy and the illegality, he is deluding himself. “
The Lawyer continued, “His Attorney General needs to advise him of Article 95 ‘Vacancy in the Office of the President’ and Article 197A ‘Defence and security.’”
Ram explained that Article 95, which provides the order of precedence when there is no President, lists the next in line as the Prime Minister, followed by an elected member of the National Assembly elected by the Cabinet, and next by the Chancellor.
He said that since legally—upon the passage of a no-confidence—there is no President, Prime Minister or any Cabinet to elect any person, “the poisoned chalice falls on the Chancellor. The functions of Chancellor are then passed to another Judge as per Article 127 (2).”
According to Ram, “If Mr. Granger, then without the title of honorific President, still wants to play obstinate, Article 197A will be triggered”.
He said that the Article makes the defence and security arm of the State the guarantor of the normal functioning of institutions, of which the Presidency is the highest. Ram said that so

Attorney-at-Law, Christopher Ram

me may argue that the use of the words “defence and security policy” in Article 197A are not as clear and unambiguous as they ought to be, “but some clarity is offered in paragraph 9.18.2.1 of the Annotated Handbook of the Constitution Reform Commission. The oath Officers take is to “honour, uphold and preserve the Constitution” and accordingly, they will have a duty to secure the presidency, which under Article 95 devolves on the Chancellor.”
Ram said that the popular view in Guyana is that President Granger is a “decent man.”

Ram said that this “decent man” will have to ask himself whether he is willing to have the Army, for the first time in this country, play a role in its government. “Such a situation is too frightening to contemplate, and it has to be hoped that even the most battered, bruised and disappointed politicians would want to prevent such an eventuality.”
Ram said that in short, the President and his Ministers “will then push Guyana into its worst constitutional crisis in its history, since even the suspension of the 1953 constitution was made legal by an Order in Council.”

When other countries got higher signing bonus Guyana' s incompetent govt only managed to get 18m USD.

To date what does the Guyanese people know about that money?
What's the status of the money?
Was the money represented in the budget this far?
What's the progress report on the money?

Raphael Trotman says he regrets that government did not share the details of the US$18 million signing bonus it received from ExxonMobil with Guyana’s citizenry earlier and trusts that they understand the national security imperatives associated with its planned use.

“Insofar as regrets, I do believe we could have trusted the populace some more to understand the national security imperatives that we believed to be clear and present and requiring of a response insofar as the US$18 million goes and the overall relationship with ExxonMobil
“To this end, we could have shared the details much earlier,” he added.

Sunday, 10 February 2019

Kaieteur News

The Coalition is getting its way: Abuse of the right to Judicial Review or Shrewd Politics?

Feb 10, 2019 Features / Columnists, Hinds' Sight with Dr. David Hinds 0 Comments

My column two weeks ago—before the Chief Justice’s rulings– argued that the Coalition was outmaneuvering the PPP. The argument was premised on a simple truth—the coalition was achieving its objective of remaining in power beyond the 90-day constitutional stipulation without triggering a large-scale political crisis.

Since that column, the Chief Justice has ruled against the Coalition, but the government has remained in place. While the PPP and some independent actors continue to call for the government to go and for elections to be held within the constitutionally mandated timeframe, the government remains firmly in place.

In addition to the court ruling, the big change since that column has been the Coalition’s launch of its overt election campaign. I had made the point that the government’s rolling out new initiatives almost every day is a form of covert electioneering, but up till then there was no direct election campaigning by the coalition parties as parties. That has now changed. The Coalition launched its campaign committee, with the leader himself being designated the campaign leader.

Government Ministers are now all over the country shaking hands and mingling with the people. The advantage of this for the Coalition is that they get two bites as the cherry —while they are on the trail, they are performing both in the capacity of party leaders and government ministers.

This is a massive about turn for a group of politicians which I have described as the most aloof in Guyana’s modern political history. Very early in the life of the government I had called on members to not govern just from Georgetown, but to go out into the communities and engage in a permanent conversation. My February 17, 2017 column in the Guyana Chronicle was titled “The Parking Meter Fiasco and the Arrogance of Power-stop being arrogant and ‘rap’ to your people.” They organized a couple of “Government Days” at the Square of the Revolution and that was that.

A quotation from another column published on December 6, 2016, titled “Government accessibility to its supporters,” is worth remembering: “We live in a small society, where high Government officials can be seen driving around the place; so, when accessibility becomes a problem, there must be something deeper at play. I have heard, for example, from coalition supporters and members, of their not being able to secure audiences with ministers. Many complain that those with ready access to ministers and Government jobs were nowhere to be seen during the “hard guava days.” They complain that party members who were in the trenches taking blows for 23 years are now being sidelined and ignored, while the new “big wigs” are running things, often with an attitude of entitlement. While I do not know the extent of this problem, I know that it exists. I am against giving people jobs simply because they belong to the governing coalition; but it is quite human and normal for people who sacrificed for a cause to expect to be rewarded in some form when the success of that cause comes in the form of office. The issue of neglect is real, even if in some instances it’s exaggerated.”

Those observations were seen as “criticisms” by Government Ministers and soon my column was removed from the Chronicle and I was branded an enemy of the Coalition. So, now that the ministers are out there with the people, I am vindicated. The downside of this exercise by the Ministers is that some people may be cynical about these “walkabouts”—that it is all about electioneering and not any genuine love for the people. But, for the sake of those government supporters who have invested so much in the government, I hope it is not a case of “too little too late.”

I think we are likely to see more goodies for the masses. Gas prices have been reduced. We are going to see more contracts given to contractors who will deliver jobs to the government constituency. More infrastructural work would be done in mostly Coalition-friendly communities. The Guyana Teachers’ Union has skillfully raised their wages matter again and I think the response from the government would be more positive than before.

Government is going to make-up with the vendors. Party leaders are already on the ground whispering apologies to some communities. Money that the government couldn’t find a mere three months ago would be found. The challenge for the Coalition is whether this use of government to steer resources to supporters would turn-off independent voters, especially Indian Guyanese Independents.

As much as the Opposition and advocates of good governance would rail against these moves, I think there is not much that would be done to stop the train. Should the PPP make any aggressive moves such as massive demonstrations, it would play into the government’s hands. The PPP would be branded as troublemakers—already Jagdeo’s rhetoric is being blamed for the bomb threats and instances of violence. And in the end, it would help the Coalition gain more time. The PPP is in a no-win situation.

The other jewel in the Coalition’s hand is GECOM. At the end of the day, GECOM is not controlled by the PPP—the tables have turned. The GECOM timeline with or without new house-to-house registration would put elections in July-August at the earliest. The clock will start running when the GECOM machinery gets the go-ahead. The Coalition is sitting pretty.

But even as I say the above, one can still see some clumsiness on the Coalition’s part. Winston Jordan’s comment to a Black audience – that wages don’t and won’t make them rich and that they should go into business – is the kind of neo-liberal economics talk that has no place in the Coalition’s narrative. Instead, tell them Winston, that in an oil and gas economy that is driven by people-centered policies, they could earn a living wage that would improve their standard of living and guarantee them some extra money that could be invested in small business.

That Coalition picket in front of GECOM was nonsensical. The person who came up with that idea should be banished from the campaign. The last thing the Coalition wants is for the PPP to say that GECOM was pressured by the PNC to have a house-to-house operation. Leave GECOM alone.

Despite being outmaneuvered, the PPP continues to dominate the news. The reason is two-fold. First, the Coalition has lost the sympathy of the independent media and it is yet to devise a strategy to woo them back. Second and most importantly, the Coalition is not making news—that is what the media sell.

To make news, you must have newsmakers and you must have something politically sensible to say. I am afraid that the DPI stories and Chronicle editorials don’t fall into that category. And clearly some Ministers are not newsmakers. While the utterings of Government ministers are being dressed up and pumped up in the lowly circulated Chronicle, Jagdeo is getting two or three top stories per day in the highly circulated Kaieteur and Stabroek, in addition to his ten in the Guyana Times. To paraphrase calypsonian, Chalkdust: “Somebody up in Congress Place mad.”

Now, back to the big picture. The Coalition has appealed the Chief Justice’s ruling. I think those rulings were as fair as they come. After close examination of both the letter and the spirit of the law, I don’t see how any shrewd judge could have come to a different conclusion. And it is against that background that I would be surprised if the higher courts strike down her rulings. I have some sympathy for the arguments in favour of 34 being a majority, but in the end, I think it failed the test of “the spirit” of law.

I do not think the government expected to win those cases in the High Court and expects to win in the higher courts. It is then clear to me that the challenge to the No-confidence Vote is the use of the legal system for political ends—the Coalition wants to remain in office for as long as possible, so that it could use that time and space to do what it should have done in the previous three years. The big question is whether this amounts to abuse of the system and whether it is a violation of the constitution.

Report: U.S.-Based Plane Caught Bringing Arms into Venezuela

HEADLINEFEB 08, 2019

McClatchy is reporting Venezuelan authorities have uncovered 19 assault weapons, 118 ammunition cartridges and 90 military-grade radio antennas on board a U.S.-owned plane that had flown from Miami into Valencia, Venezuela’s third-largest city. The Boeing 767 is owned by a company called 21 Air based in Greensboro, North Carolina. The plane has made nearly 40 round-trip flights between Miami and spots in Venezuela and Colombia since January 11, the day after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in to a second term. Bolivarian National Guard General Endes Palencia Ortiz said, “This materiel was destined for criminal groups and terrorist actions in the country, financed by the fascist extreme right and the government of the United States.” This comes as the United States is openly pushing for the toppling of Maduro’s government.

People's Progressive Party meetings in the Upper Mazaruni.

During a recent PPP meeting held in Potarinau village, Headteacher Ms. Eleanor Dorrick of Potarinau Primary School requested footballs and volleyballs for her students club.

Today the balls were handed over to the Headteacher.

Letter to editor

The facts lay bare as to who can you trust
February 9, 2019

Dear Editor,
AFC General Secretary, Mr Marlon Williams at a press conference, is quoted as saying: “Whatever you might say about the present coalition Government, and its last four years, the question is, who do you trust, based on merit, based on experience. Who do you trust? Who can you trust? And based on the records of the two opposing parties that are going into this elections, that is the question for Guyanese”.
It is a very pertinent statement by the AFC General Secretary and should cause all Guyanese to question whom we can trust. If one is to consider the actions of the coalition in its term, so far, can we really conclude that they are trustworthy? Imagine just days after being sworn in, and among the first orders of business for the APNU/AFC, the Government gave itself a 50 per cent pay increase.
Worst yet, when asked for a justification, the Government’s main spokesperson, Minister of State Joseph Harmon told the public, flippantly, the Government had no apologies for its actiond. But the Government went on and apart from the big pay hike, it took out multimillion-dollar health insurance packages for its Ministers; it increased perks and other conditions and saddled Guyanese with the largest ministerial cadre in the nation’s history.
The Government also promised workers substantial pay rises with increases of 20 per cent being touted. But when the time came to pay, the Administration said it couldn’t afford it. It even went as far as taking away the one month’s bonus from members of the Disciplined Services. But while crying wolf and singing it cannot pay, we saw the hiring of several party faithful in high posts of the State undoubtedly attracting super, if not magnificent, salaries.
We should not forget the Government spending over $300 million to rent a so-called ‘drug bond’ from an individual who allegedly has close ties to those in power. How can we also not remember the purchase of drugs at several times the cost from preferred bidders? Then there was the imbroglio surrounding the feasibility study for a new bridge spanning the Demerara River.
The APNU/AFC said it would deliver a “good life to all Guyanese”. But did it do that? The answer is an emphatic no, in my view. On this score, the evidence is mountainous. We have the recalling of the school children’s grant; the abandoning of subsidies to pensioners; the taxing of electricity and water; the increase in the cost of Government services and fees, and the ballooning of the size of Government.
We also cannot forget that this Government presided over the largest retrenchment exercise in the history of post-independent Guyana when it closed four sugar estates and put 7000 Guyanese out of work.
The Government also said it would respect the Constitution. But the Constitution said the Cabinet should have resigned when defeated by a no-confidence motion. This clearly salient clause has been disrespected and willy-nilly arguments are being proffered. Incidentally, those arguments have been rejected by both the National Assembly and the High Court.
The Constitution also says Government should not interfere in the work of the Service Commissions but the Government, who undertook to abide by our Constitution, did just that, an act which the court frowned on. And there are other instances of excesses and clear breaches.
So I go back to what Mr Williams said “who do you trust… who can you trust? That is the question for Guyanese”. The facts lay bare as to who can you trust. The Government essentially has left Guyanese high and dry. Can we really trust them for five more years?
Yours truly,
Patricia Persaud