…GECOM
Folks who run elections in most countries are faceless bureaucrats who just need to know addition, as they count ballots cast for different parties. Couldn’t get simpler than that, could it? Well, Burnham changed that simplicity for us when he decided to rig the 1968 elections so he could rule on his lonesome – without his erstwhile coalition partner, the UF, looking over his shoulders! Not that the Brits – who ruled us for over a hundred years – were any angels. For most of that time, they simply announced we weren’t FIT to rule ourselves!! Then, in 1964, they changed the voting RULES to ensure the compliant Burnham and D’Aguiar would “defeat” the incumbent – but recalcitrant – PPP!!
Burnham, however, wanted to have his cake and eat it too: to say to the world he was elected “fairly” because of his popularity, while leaving nothing to chance in how the people voted – which is the whole point about democracy!! So, he changed the legislation to have the Chief Elections Officer – whom he controlled – overseeing the counting have complete authority to decide who would garner and count overseas vote. And for the next two decades, the Guyana Elections Commission – GECOM – stamped off on one crooked election after another!! While a British Parliamentary Observer Group in 1980 said the elections “were more crooked than barbed wire”, the description could’ve been just as well applied to GECOM!!
But, for our purposes today, it should be asked why the Brits hadn’t messed around with the Elections Commission and their counting responsibilities to choose suitable lackeys to govern. And the simple answer is it’s better to change the RULES of the game than corrupting the umpire. Once you do that, you would’ve started a process that destroys the game itself – because of the cynicism generated in the participants!! Here, the voters.
And that’s the reason why GECOM’s professionalisation has been at the centre of “electoral reform” proposed by domestic and international observers. However, one of the challenges in professionalising any section of OUR public institutions is that they’re staffed overwhelmingly by African Guyanese – who generally support the PNC. While professionalism is needed, we need to appreciate that ethnic predispositions and the imbalance has to be rectified. It’s not mere fortuity that all nine officials who’re on trial for attempting to rig the 2020 elections are from one demographic.
But, in Guyana, there’s a stigma in calling this spade a spade; so we witness the three Opposition Commissioners (all African Guyanese) accusing the PPP of “politicising” GECOM as the PPP attempts to transform GECOM by hiring professionals to replace the folks on trial, but inevitably end up with SOME of them being Indian Guyanese!! The Government cannot flinch, but must do the right thing!!
…BRICS
As you would know, dear reader, your Eyewitness has been following the goings-on in BRICS+, as it moves to expand that “plus” so that it can become an alternative bloc to counter the US-led western bloc that’s been dominant since WWII. And this is where members like India – who want to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds – seem to be confused. BRICS+ would inevitably be “China-led”, especially as the US continues to make strategic moves to retain its dominant position!!
The “iron law of oligarchy” – which we’ve seen operating down the millennia – states baldly that all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic they may be at the start, would eventually and inevitably develop oligarchic tendencies, thus making true democracy practically and theoretically impossible, especially in large groups and complex organizations.
China’s overwhelming economic and military superiority would not allow it to compromise if its interests – defined only by itself – are threatened!!
…UN toothlessness?
Last Wednesday, 187 countries voted at the UN in favour of the US ending the blockade against Cuba. The US and Israel were the only voters against the resolution. This is a lesson for us: not to depend totally on the UN in our struggle against Mad Maduro.
