…what ain’t broken
One of the unintended benefits of the return of the PNC to Government is that the political vocabulary of our people has been enlarged. We now know, for instance, more than we ever thought possible about the word “or” when PNC leader David Granger offered us his “perception” on interpreting the phrase “or any other fit and proper person”. He insisted that it didn’t mean anyone other than a Judge – as indicated in the first section – could be the Chair of GECOM!
The semantics of Guyanese politics were well explained in “Alice in Wonderland” – that profoundly philosophical inquiry by Lewis Carroll into the surreal. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” And, as we found out in the Case of the GECOM Chair and so many other instances, the PNC leader is “master” of Guyana.
So we arrive at this new word that’s been circulating now that the Local Government Elections (LGE) are nigh upon us – “gerrymandering”. What it means is that under claims of ensuring that certain groups aren’t underrepresented in the constituency system of voting, the boundaries of the constituency are adjusted. The simplest one is to ensure that each constituency has a similar number of voters who will select a candidate, to give effect to the “one man; one vote” requirement of democracy.
Or, more commonly in the US, to ensure that minorities like African Americans are empowered to create constituencies where they are a majority, and so can send their choice to Congress. Very early on, however, in the US, where the system originated, politicians – such as “Gerry”, the fella who gave his name to the phenomenon – saw the opportunity to redraw constituency boundaries to ensure THEIR supporters have a majority!! Thus giving the word its rather shady connotation!! And of course, this brings us to Guyana, where the PNC’s shady reputation on elections is legendary!!
Bulkan just increased the number of constituencies from 71 to 80 for the LGE, plus the Municipality of Mahdia. Now we know that Mahdia is PNC-dominated, and we can extrapolate what those 9 new constituencies would be!! It’s always possible that Bulkan may be trying to correct representational anomalies – after all, miracles are possible! – but with the PNC’s rigging record, wouldn’t it have been better for the matter to have been discussed by a bi-partisan Parliamentary Committee?
But that wouldn’t guarantee a PNC electoral advantage, would it?
…thrown out
The PNC was returned to office with the support of the AFC and via one major theme – that the PPP was corrupt and they’d “siphoned off billions and billions” into their pockets. Right after they slid into office in May 2015, by July they had instituted 24 charges against Minister Jennifer Westford and her aide, Cummings, for a whopping claim of $600 million “theft”!! And boy, did they push for the case to go forward, so that they’d be vindicated and folks would forget about their 50% pay hike for themselves and their betrayal of their supporters!
It’s now clear that the doubts in the DPP’s office – which resulted in prosecutors being appointed more than a year later in Aug 2016 — were quite justified. After exactly two years in the Courts, the charges were dismissed on two grounds. Firstly, that no evidence was produced that the theft actually took place – since it couldn’t be shown that they received any money!! And secondly…that the charge itself – Larceny by a Public Officer – didn’t apply!!
It was just pure PNC spite!!
…or excusing SOCU?
The British High Commish criticised the Public Prosecutors’ Office once again by insisting that they aren’t following up on SOCU’s “well investigated” cases.
Does Police Legal Advisor Justice Claudette Singh have to refute this once again?
