My last two columns have served as a warning to all freedom-loving Guyanese and our international friends that Guyana’s democracy is seriously sick and is in the intensive care unit. It is under threat by a disgusting predator – creeping dictatorship. Constitutional bodies like service commissions and statutory boards are being overturned and replaced by cabinet instructions. Independent bodies like the Auditor General are being threatened and harassed. In fact, this week the Police Service Commission’s recommendations for promotions within the Police Force were discarded and replaced by arbitrary promotions directly from the Ministry of Public Security. Such frightening events are compounded by the imagery of cabinet meetings at the Military Headquarters. The unmistaken stench of dictatorship pollutes the environment and milieu of everyday life in Guyana today.
This week, I highlight the messianic zeal and errant bypass of another constitutional, independent agency. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is under aggressive assault by APNU/AFC. They have steadfastly displayed their arrogance in bypassing and marginalising the DPP’s office since May 2015 when APNU/AFC took control of the Government. Earlier this week they announced that they will move ahead with charges of various leaders and persons associated with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) for various actions during the tenure of the PPP/C in office, in spite of the forensic audits which discovered no criminal activities. Using the Police and the judiciary to intimidate political opponents is a trademark of dictators and tyrants.
These charges will be made directly by the Police without the involvement of the DPP. This is not the first time they have threatened to bypass the DPP and gradually making the DPP impotent in carrying out its independent authority. Recall that Raphael Trotman in July announced the Cabinet had instructed the Attorney General, Basil Williams, and the Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, to establish a Special Prosecutor’s Unit as part of the Ministry of Public Security, an overt attempt to diminish and render the DPP as a useless body.
We may have a Parliament that functions somewhat differently from that in the United Kingdom, but we largely have a Westminster-style governance model which is underpinned by the doctrine of separation of powers between the executive, parliament and the judiciary. The DPP, as part of the judiciary, is independent and acts without fear or favour. It is not beholden to the Presidency or the Parliament. It acts based on evidence provided by the Police and other investigative agencies. There is use of Special Prosecutors in the DPP system, but that is a decision of the DPP’s office, not a convenient use by a cabinet to bypass the DPP.
Decisions to prosecute (or not) need to be made free of any suspicion that any decision may have been made on party political grounds. Since the APNU/AFC appears not to be able to compromise the present DPP, they have two choices – first fire the DPP and or force her to resign, or second bypass the DPP. They clearly have chosen to bypass her and carry out their lawless behaviour through direct charges by the Police or through the use of a Special Prosecutors Unit in the Ministry of Public Security. Through this mechanism, they will now embark on a political witch hunt which we, unfortunately, are no strangers to, given our experience under the People’s National Congress.
The overtly lurid efforts to circumvent the DPP raise suspicions and questions about the government’s motives. Clearly, the way the APNU/AFC is acting raises suspicion that they are motivated by a desire to shackle any individual or organisation that is willing and able to challenge them by exercising a degree of independent power. When a government starts messing with the independence of the DPP, the unmistaken signs of a Police State become far too real. Taken with the other evidence to silence the Auditor General and statutory commissions, the signs become ominous. In less than two years, the APNU/AFC has taken too many steps down a path of dictatorship.
APNU/AFC has the DNA of authoritarianism. The President served as an important player in the PNC dictatorship. The Attorney General is a disciple of Burnham, the PNC dictator. The Minister of Public Security is a poodle of the President, too comfortable with the trappings of unbridled power. The APNU/AFC is not timid in displaying those genes of dictatorship. The latest move to silence the DPP is nothing but dog whistle that a new era of unbridled power, dictatorship and brutal intimidation of political opponents has arrived. Creeping dictatorship is not a hyperbole. It is very real. We already know that May 2015 was a horrible mistake. (Send comments to [email protected])
