There are times when referring to WIKIPEDIA
-that open source, on-line encyclopedia paid PPP operatives use to take a political bowel movement on Forbes Burnham and his People’s National Congress-
makes the point clearer than regular media could.
Seemingly, the disinformation that is uploaded requires just available fingers; not a brain to contemplate if the info is sufficiently false.
Countries that base their political ideology on democracy keep count of Amendments to their national Constitution.
Even America, with its self-devouring style of democracy, is committed to keeping a strict count of changes to its Constitution – which stands at 27 ratified of the 33 that have passed in Congress.
It’s the kind of virtue America likes to push to the forefront as window dressing to hide the structural disorder that lies in its federalist system of government…this appearance of commitment to order and the systems that protect it.
And by deferring to this country as its ideological north star, Guyana has become the select recipient of the political costuming reserved for refurbished nations America welcomes as desireable neighbors in its back yard.
In their strategy of situational politics, Madam Ambassador Lynch has taken to labeling the PPP’s autocracy an emerging democracy, camouflaged in another tranche of assistance to adorn their new label… while Team Jagdeo becomes more deft dictators.
So, how does this all tie in to Wikipedia and the assembly line of fingers robotically dis-informing?
Well, per PPP’s wiki entry – Guyana’s Constitution, comparatively younger and structurally less complicated than America’s -has “gone through multiple amendments” – with the absence of a definitive number being the tell, here.
Amendments, we’re taught, should be carefully contemplated since too many of them undermine the sovereignty of the Constitution. Equally as disfiguring are major decisions that eke into existence on slim partisan majorities. There is, too, implied constitutional morality in the sworn oaths taken by politicians to defend and protect that document and what it represents for each citizen.
So, with all this context, the mission of the ruling Party, which has governed since 1992- except from May 2015 to August 2020-cannot be overlooked…even if they assert that the 5 years prior to their return to office is the reason Guyana is a country in intractable social malaise.
With a quarter century of access to unriveting the underpinnings of a Constitution envisaged for 6 peoples, and collapsing it into a document guided by a Partisan ideology that promotes the well- being of one race, one political culture that stokes ongoing racial division, it is hard to argue that the PPP has not calculatedly prioritized rupture over reform.
By repeatedly holding democracy to ransom- through the slim majority the 65 seat legislature recycles more as testament to demographics and their geographical location, than national civic needs – the beleaguered Constitution provides cover for the game of finger- pointing and blame -casting, which the PPP has mastered throughout its quarter century of dictatorship.
Now, it’s the Constitution’s fault that the nation’s Judiciary still has a Chancellor and Chief Justice in acting roles.
It’s a conundrum, the Attorney General (AG) feels, that arises out of some vexing formula that dares to demand politicians work together for the good of country – not just Party – to select nominees for the critical portfolios of Chancellor and Chief Justice.
The last time this happened, he points out, was in 1996 when Honorable Madam Justice Desiree Bernard, was appointed Chief Justice by Cheddi Jagan as President and Desmond Hoyte as Opposition Leader … seemingly unaware that cross- party unity is the standard; why politicians are sent to work for the people and that it’s not just a variable that he can’t factor in to his perplexing formula.
But cross -party unity is ignited from a core of national pride which is a species of patriotism. Patriotism is the auto pilot that places country above all else.
Short of that, the response is reptilian self-preservation, at the cost of country, to free-style polititicking and further plummetting of the disappearing democracy into deeper crisis.
The AG’s incoherent response… is a learned reflex in search of a justifying principle.
Point to Ian Chang and Carl Singh – it is – and invoke Granger’s ‘No’ as reason to proffer his ‘No’ to the appointments of the women who have been acting as Chancellor and Chief Justice; just so the petty has a partner and there is balance in the universe of unproductive PPP governance.
In their mishmash of situational ethics, the AG’s most urgent response is to delay what his ruling Party and arm of Government could do immediately.
His preposterous premise is that the complexity of the ‘formula’ demands working with the Opposition….the Constitutional requirement of the two arms of Government.
He is saying, in effect, that Constitutional values will be served if he underserves the country and plays some combination of partisan/racial last- lick, by not fast tracking a dire requirement to remove the “significant blot on an otherwise impressive Guyanese legal and Judicial landscape” -per the President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, in reference to the 17 year absence of substantial appointments at the head of the nation’s judiciary.
Not unexpectedly, rule under the PPP has resumed its carnage …clutter, shutter, the governing apparatus with any combination of feigned caution and fabricated gridlock.
Now, he’s hoping for the Law Reform Commission to ‘embark upon a constitutional reform exercise’ to “avoid fanciful and impossible recommendations”.
A new formula …he bellows…in another cheap attempt at distraction from the Constitution they have amended too many times to number…but not the part that says it is in the interest of sound and functional governance that the Judiciary, a key vertebra of the state, should not have vacancies for substantial appointments at the Chancellor and Chief Justice levels… for almost 20 years.
There’s every reason to believe that the AG understands the need for permanent appointments at this level and there is no reason to doubt that he is bringing to the office, yet again, more patented partisan arrogance, leavened by some signature frivolousness.
Often, there is little difference between malevolence and incomptetence .
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