Minister Ally admits to blocking Corriverton flag-raising ceremony

– says its Govt’s way or no way, while denying personally instructing Police

By Samuel Sukhnandan

One day after the coalition Government was accused of blocking and sabotaging the annual flag-raising ceremony of the Corriverton Town Council, Minister Amna Ally has admitted that she was responsible for causing this event to be cancelled even while preparations were already made.
The senior Government Minister told Guyana Times on Sunday that flag-raising ceremonies are national events organised by the Government. She noted that there are also committees set up in the various regions which hold responsibility for planning and executing these events.

However, in making finalising preparations for this event in Corriverton, Ally recalled that she spoke with the town’s Mayor, Krishnand Jaichand, about the order of the programme. She said Jaichand told her that an Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) will deliver the feature address.
“I said to him I have no difficulty with the MP speaking at the forum but the Government will be fielding a speaker also who will be Vice President (Khemraj) Ramjattan. He said that they didn’t want Ramjattan there and that the rally will be addressed by the PPP MP,” the Minister recalled.
But Ally said she was opposed to the Mayor’s alleged refusal to have the Vice President address the gathering last. As such, the Minister claimed that she made it clear that if the event cannot be addressed by Ramjattan, then it would have to be cancelled and there would be no flag-raising ceremony.
The Mayor has insisted that his Town Council had formally invited Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan to deliver remarks at the flag-raising event, but it had not received any response from his office even as the time drew near to confirm the programme and speakers for the event.

The Council then decided to invite Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) MP Adrian Anamayah who happens to be a resident of Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) to speak at the event. Jaichand claimed that after the decision was made, Minister Bulkan called and pleaded with him to change the programme to allow the Vice President to be the feature speaker at the event. However, the Town Council refused.
The Mayor further alleged that the Springlands Police Station informed the Council that they should not go ahead with the event, as no permission had been granted. He claimed that the Police informed him that they were acting on instructions from “higher up.”
Asked whether she instructed the Police to make such a decision, Minister Ally denied this allegation. “I can’t instruct the Police. My understanding from the Police is that they [Town Council] haven’t sought permission. They didn’t do that. And they only acted based on what was presented to them.”
While Jaichand has admitted that no permission was sought from the Police, he said this has never caused the POLIce to stop any such events, especially one that has such significance. Ally’s response to that issue was, “Well this is not the PPP Government, this is APNU/AFC Government and things are being done differently. The law requires us to seek permission for public meetings. So to come and tell us that is a whole set of garbage. You can’t break the law and tell us who must be sent to be the speaker.”
Questioned further as to whether she thinks her call to the Mayor could be dubbed as interference in the work of a local organ that was elected to serve the people of Corriverton, Ally said it has nothing to do with interference, but simply with the fact that they attempted to break the law. “Why then we had flag raising in New Amsterdam, Linden, and Mabaruma. All of them complied with the law,” she said, adding that if the Mayor has a taped recording of anyone passing instructions he should produce it.
A meeting is scheduled to take place today with members of the Corriverton Town Council and it is expected to discuss the issue and to see what action could be taken to prevent a reoccurrence. The Mayor is questioning if Ramjattan was given the opportunity to speak at the event, would the Police have still taken a decision to stop the flag-raising ceremony, even though permission wasn’t sought.
Jaichand described the event as a “dark night in the history of Corriverton when the Police and Government attempted to undermine the will of the people and our right to local democracy. In all of our 48 years of hosting flag-raising events, this has never happened. I am not only upset, but I am concerned about the embarrassment that we faced; but the people were on our side.”