…and blood
It’s said that “blood is thicker than water”. And this bit of folk wisdom was certainly reaffirmed when James McAllister, an old PNC die-hard, weighed in on the no-confidence consequences, to offer another concoction why Article 106 should be violated by the Government. He proposed a theory of a “social coup d’etat”, which rivals the Frankensteinan “half-man” theory of what constitutes a “majority”, that’s already been sold to the Govt!!
Before we examine the “social coup d’etat”, let us look at the blood ties since it provides the context for McAllister’s incredible exercise in sophistry! McAllister, you see, was a card-carrying member of the PNC from childhood, having cut his teeth in its youth arm, the YSM, for donkey years – serving in various capacities up to being its Chairman. But in 2007, he dared to assume that even though the PNC had traduced democracy in the country for 28 years, it would practice it in its internal leadership elections!! What naivety on ethnic “blood” leaders!!
As a leading member of “Team Alexander” challenging Robert Corbin for Leadership, he was summarily expelled from the PNC and recalled as MP. So much for democracy in the PNC!! He left Guyana in disgust! In 2014, after one of his team members, Aubrey Norton was rigged out of the PNC internal elections for leadership in another exercise of déjà vu, he revealed bitterly to this newspaper how the fix was made for Granger.
But now that AFC MP Charrandas Persaud exercised his right to vote his conscience, what’s McAllister’s reaction? That CP was bribed; making his vote an “illegal act” – analogous to the guns used in “regular” coups!! The calls by the Opposition, the media, the GTUC, the Business Community, et al, for democracy to be upheld is simply “legitimising” the illegal act because they’ve been “gaslighted”!! That is, they were convinced to that position through devious and cunning tricks by the Opposition!!
That’s right, folks; without a shred of evidence, McAllister rushes to the side of Granger – who’s the illegal leader of the PNC, if he’s to be believed –- and weaves a web of casuistry for the gullible PNCites, who’re only willing to grasp at any stray thrown to the PNC! Forgotten is his humiliation, forgotten is his insistence that his expulsion wasn’t due to “infighting” in the PNC – but to the fight for “democracy”! Ethnic blood is thicker than water!!
Fact of the matter is that the “no confidence motion” in an integral aspect of democratic parliamentary practice – from England to India where Callahan in 1979 and Vajpayee in 1999 respectively resigned after defeat by that motion.
McAllister, the abused child, had become an abusive parent!!
…and no-confidence motions
The subtext for McAllister’s argument is that CP’s vote was an act of betrayal to his party – never mind that’s exactly how Corbin saw HIS support for Vincent Alexander back in 2007! But both actions, in fact, WERE democratic. As one authority declared: “Each and every Member of Parliament gives an oath to uphold the Constitution of the Republic. When they are sworn in to the Parliament, they assume a higher responsibility to the Republic. Their political party becomes secondary. There is no “win” or “lose” in democracy. All there is, is the people’s’ choice – represented by their MPs.”
The sine qua non of democratic governments’ legitimacy is they derive it from the people via their MPs. No party can COMPEL their MPs to vote a particular way – even though they use various subterfuges to accomplish that through their “whips”. The 100 Tory MPs who voted against Theresa May’s leadership a month ago in the House of Commons are all still there.
Why can’t the PNC aspire higher for Guyana than a “sh*thole country”?
…and the courts
Another characteristic of democratic government is the “division of powers” between the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. In parliamentary democracies, however, the Executive and Legislature are fused. Leaving only the Judiciary to protect democracy.
All ayes are on the Chief Justice.
