It is too obscene for anyone to miss. The A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) has effectively incorporated double standards in its arsenal of weapons to consolidate dictatorship in Guyana. They campaigned in 2015 on an agenda of change.
But the May 2015 change of Government allowed dictatorship to return to Guyana. For those who still only see the threat of dictatorship, the bad news is Guyana has already become a dictatorship. The double standards we see being practiced every day are instruments of power perverted. These double standards represent yet another stark demonstration that Guyana has already become enmeshed into the dark days of dictatorship, days reminiscent of the Burnham/Hoyte People’s National Congress (PNC) authoritarian regime.
APNU/AFC, similar to the PNC Governments between 1964 and 1992, simply do not care if anyone trusts them or not, they are only interested in maximising the use of any instrument that will reinforce their power. Those who, or those actions which are supportive of the Government, even if laws are broken and even if the actions are absolutely corrupted, are protected by “sovereign immunity”, a powerful weapon the State uses to enforce its dictatorial power. APNU/AFC is determined that it will govern, surpassing the PNC in its enforcement of the principle “the King can do no wrong”. That immunity extends to the “King’s” people.
No one denies that high officials linked to APNU/AFC are associated with the ship recently caught with smuggled fuel. The Head of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) conceded that it was a criminal fuel smuggling operation. Yet the owners of the operation are getting away “scotch-free” – no punishment, nada. For this serious crime on the high seas, the owners simply have to pay the taxes owed for the fuel that the ship was caught with. Who believes this was the first ever smuggled fuel this ship was involved in? Was this smuggling operation not an open secret all along? What if the people associated with this ship with smuggled fuel were not linked to the Government? Without double-standards, the minimum would have been seizure of the ship and criminal charges against the owners or the operators.
Blatant double standards are evident in the news that three low-level Police officers were transferred after a routine sitting of candidates for a drivers licence examination revealed there were 106 persons who physically took the exams, but there were 207 written exams at the end, 101 extra non-present candidates. How did this happen? To make matters worse, the three Policemen had no official or unofficial role to be present. Assuming, they were involved in the skullduggery all by themselves, why is it they are simply transferred? This is a crime and they should be charged with a crime. The soft-landing “punishment” is merely hiding the crime and allowing a pass.
The issue of Government’s response to Rusal versus sugar workers provides a sinister insight into the muddy mind of this Government. We commend the Government for quickly meeting with the Rusal bauxite workers whose jobs are on the line because of the American sanctions against Rusal. The quick response by APNU/AFC to establish a task force that will seek to provide necessary support for the 200 plus Rusal workers, if and when they would have lost their jobs, is the right thing. The question is why no one in this Government thought of a similar task force, why they rejected a task force proposal in December 2016 and why the livelihood of 7000 sugar workers did not elicit a similar urgent response from APNU/AFC. There is a worrying double standard in APNU/AFC’s response in the case of the 200 Rusal workers whose jobs are on the line versus the 7000 sugar workers who have lost their jobs.
Frighteningly, these few examples of double standards are just from this past week. If one cares to look, we will see the double standards every day. When Juan Edghill demanded to speak in Parliament, even as the Speaker was denying him his rights, Police was brought in to arrest him and his colleagues who joined him in standing up. The APNU/AFC leaders accused the PPP MPs of being disrespectful and undemocratic. Yet these same leaders smile when their Councillors refuse to allow any civil meeting of the Regional Democratic Councils in Regions Two and Five. Most Guyanese are willing to simply “smh” in disgust. APNU/AFC, however, is “lol” as they wreak havoc with disgusting double standards.
