I don't know why Minister Shaw was
murdered, I have heard literally dozens of scenarios ranging from the theory
that it was a reprisal for the Waddle killing to the theory that this was a
robbery where 4 people were killed for 100 US dollars, i.e. 23,000 Guyana
dollars, if this is true then life in Guyana comes very cheap indeed, I have
heard that the murder was drug related i.e. that Sawh may have been passing
sensitive information to foreign powers. Ladies and Gentlemen my function is
not to tell you who killed Minister Sawh, that is the job of the police my job
is to tell you that the system of which he was a part failed him.
Around 3 years ago Sash Sawh came up to
me at a function in the Chinese Embassy and told me that he likes my
commentaries. He also said that he did not agree with everything I said but he
recognised that every story has two sides and he accepted my right to my own
views. This came as some surprise to me, since I did not know him and he is the
only minister from the PPP who recognised my right to comment on what I see
wrong, believe or not only four people from the PPP even speak to me Bharat
Jagdeo who greets me everywhere he sees me, Bernard De Santos and Charles
Ramson always speak to me when I see them anywhere, and Donald Ramoutar and I
spent some time talking a couple of times mostly at the Airport exchanging some
thoughts as we waited for the plane and I found him to be quite a pleasant man.
The rest of the PPPites ignore me when they see me in public, it is the typical
Guyana political nonsense syndrome, this concept that since we are on
opposite sides and disagree on certain issues we have to be disagreeable,
bitter and deadly enemies. Personally if I don't like you, then I will not be
very friendly towards you and you will know it since I am not the type of
person that hides that kind of thing since I abhor deception, but not because
we have different views we have to hate each other. If I hate you because you
are an idiot that's different!
Now we come to the point of this
commentary where does this hatred between the PPP and the PNC come from? Well
we all know where it comes from, politicians cultivate and perpetuate it
to keep the afro Guyanese and the Indo Guyanese alienated from each other for
political manipulation. But since the parliamentary division is so close 52/53
% to 47/48 percent the PPP are not in power with any sort of real majority and
they must remember that they cannot run this country when nearly 48 percent of
the population hate their guts! It may be worse now since everything I have
seen or studied tells me that the PPP can win the next election but only with
around 42% of the vote so they cannot win with enough support to control the
parliament! And that ladies and gentlemen can change everything.
In an effort for the PPP to gain the
parliamentary majority they need to be in complete conytrol, something had to
be done, first they frustrated the work of GECOM so that there would be a
flawed election, which they can stack in their favour i.e. they wanted to rig
it. This attempt to rig the election was thwarted by the international
community who demanded that certain mechanisms be put in place before the
elections were held; this in turn led to the opposition GECOM members walking
out of the Commission.
Next, faced with the declaration by a
majority of the commissioners of GECOM that given what remained to be done the
elections cannot be held by August 4th Mr. Jagdeo called in the
leader of the opposition and they signed a memorandum of understanding as to
how they will work together to prolong the life of the parliament so that GECOM
can use the additional time to sanitise the 2001 list, put the biometrics
apparatus in place and conduct and complete the verification and registration
exercises which cannot be done in one month.
Nearly a week passed and nothing
happened, but thinking that cooperation and reconciliation was in the air the leader
of the opposition on Thursday 27th April in a television address to
the nation condemned the assassination of minister Sawh and called for all
political leaders to meet to discuss the crime situation with a view of
cooperating to re-inject some sanity into the situation, of course at that
moment in time Corbin was under the impression that he and Jagdeo had a deal as
to the extension of the Parliament since they had signed a memorandum of
understanding [MOU] establishing how they will work together to get the two
thirds majority vote needed to prolong the life of the parliament. The next day
Friday 28th Corbin received a slap in the face when he read in the
newspapers that the PPP did not have to initiate any dialog with him or make
any concessions to him, since they had discovered an alleged loophole in the
constitution that would allow them to delay elections with just a simple
majority vote in parliament. But we got a glimpse of the Guyana we all yearned
for in those couple of days i.e. after the Jagdeo/Corbin MOU signing, up to the
time when the press announced that the PPP had found this loophole in the
constitution which allows them to stay in complete control and hold the
elections a month later than August 4th we saw progress a lessening
of tension in the country, the only sour note was Dr. Luncheon's accusation
that PNC MP's were implicated in the assignation of Minister Sawh, ladies and
gentlemen what a totally unnecessary, un-provable, nonsensical thing to say and
tells me that Luncheon does not want peace in this nation, his strategy to get
back the traditional Indo Guyanese votes, lost due to his and his colleagues'
own shenanigans, corruption and incompetence is to force the PNC on the road to
march and to disrupt the nation and whoever gets hurt even the PPP's own
supporters that's inconsequential.
That's a hell of a way to get votes Doc!
So now any cooperation between the PNC and the PPP is gone, there will
inevitably be a court case, and I am saying this now there is no loophole in
the constitution to allow the extension of parliament, the only hole is in the
legal advice the PPP is getting. But I condemn the behaviour of the president
to treat the leader of the opposition in such a discourteous and unconscionable
manner; this is the kind of thing that makes any future we may see for
ourselves or our children here in Guyana impossible!!
Now ladies and gentlemen we were
expecting violence in this nation during or after the August 4th
election, I for one was sending my wife and children abroad for that period especially
if the results appeared flawed or if the system itself appeared flawed, now we
have prolonged this period of tension from literally today to all of the time
it takes to determine this loophole case, it happened in 1997 with the
elections petition case, I don't think that this country has ever recovered
from what happened here in 1997, so with more than 45 percent of the population
being angry and frustrated from now to September 4th the explosion
could be bigger than in 1997 and there will potentially be four heavy sparking
points, 1. The declaration of the election results if the PPP forces an
election whilst the case determining if it is legal is pending 2. The
declaration of the courts' decision on this loophole case in the Supreme Court 3.
The decision in the Appeal Court and 4. the decision in the CCJ, all four can ignite
the powder keg, so hostilities can commence at anytime in the intervening
period as the opposition forces and their supporters see their right to a fair
election and a better looking future eroded by deceit, betrayal and shenanigans
by the PPP.
