Concede, if Bouterse did it, you can surely do the same

Dear Editor,
On Monday, July 27, 2020, former Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who was an observer for the Commonwealth at the controversial Guyana elections passed at the age of 70, a Government statement confirmed.
In June, the late Owen Arthur said Guyana has a “prosperous future” ahead but this is solely dependent on Guyana adhering to good governance practices. He also stressed just last month that the country cannot benefit from having itself portrayed as a “pariah State” with growing poverty, COVID-19 rates, crime and frustration in our country, amid continued international outcry, warnings and the request by Hamilton Green for Granger to put aside the Constitution, trample and disregard the rule of law.

One thing is crystal clear – it is that tiny, economically poor Guyana and its incumbent leaders of the PNCR and APNU/AFC have chosen a rogue path in the Caricom and South American region, and the repercussions will be nothing but harsh for the caretaker coalition, careening fast towards dictatorship with no financial or political world power having its back.

Guyana has to be an acceptable State in the world community, with a Government that demonstrably adhere to democracy and the rule of law. The days of rogue Governments operating with impunity in the international community are over. Guyana, on the other hand, once a strong leader and an important voice in regional and global affairs, risks being ostracised in the regional, hemispheric, and international communities.

No number of braggadocious political claims about Guyana’s “sovereignty”, and why it doesn’t need the United States, Caricom, the Organisation of American States, the European Union, or any other country or international institution changes the reality that Guyana does need a constructive and respected relationship with all of them. For sure, there is a great deal of reform that is urgently required within Guyana to establish truly independent and sustainable institutions which reflect racial inclusion and balance in our composition, especially in our decision-making Boards.

Racial and religious understanding and appreciation must become integral to the education curriculum. Fear that the proceeds of revenues from oil and gas will be sequestered into the pockets of a few, or for the benefit of one racial group over another, has to be addressed by the adoption of laws governing transparency and wealth distribution and by severe penalties for their violation. The electoral system also requires root and branch transformation, including steps to ensure that no politician serves on the Elections Commission or appoints anyone to it — that task should be passed to representative bodies of civil society and enshrined in law, the recent electoral events in Guyana and Suriname which border each other on the northeast coast of the South American continent, display a remarkably different approach to democracy that could be the determining factor in catapulting Suriname’s development and prosperity well ahead of Guyana.

The two countries have many similarities and some differences. One of the principal differences is that Suriname endured coup d’états by the military, whereas Guyana has not, although the latter is notorious for disputed elections with losing parties accusing the governing party of rigging the election. There is a twist in the latest elections, held in Guyana on March 2, 2020.

After all parties and observers declared the elections to be free and fair, the governing party, A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition, claimed that the opposition party, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), had somehow fixed the elections coup d’états.
In Suriname Desiré Delano “Dési” Bouterse became the de facto leader of the country from 1980 to 1987, and then again from December 1990 to May 1991.

Bouterse eventually won two terms in office by way of the ballot box from 2010 to 2015 and 2015 until May 25, 2020, when his National Democratic Party lost the elections.
As elections in these two neighbouring states were approaching at the beginning of 2020, if any public polling were taken on which Government would have refused to leave office, even if it had clearly lost, it would have undoubtedly reflected Bouterse’s.

After all, a man who had twice seized power at the point of a gun was a superior candidate for discarding the will of the electorate, democratically exhibited in the elections. In the end, the Suriname elections result was declared on June 4, and Bouterse conceded to the opposition party, led by Chandrikapersad “Chan” Santokh of the United Reform Party.
He, himself, placed the presidential sash of office on Santokh at a ceremony on July 16. In the meantime, the declaration of the result of the Guyana elections has been prolonged for almost five months. A constant cycle of appeals to the courts by supporters of the APNU/AFC now halt a result being declared.

Even after the country’s highest appellate court, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), pronounced on the matter, appeals have been made to lower courts to overturn the CCJ’s judgement — an act unprecedented in the history of global judicial systems. striking similarity about Guyana and Suriname is that they have both become beneficiaries of major finds of oil and gas that promise to place them amongst the richest countries in the western hemisphere.

The revenues from oil and gas sales would transform us from backwater nations to countries whose economic power would make us significant influencers in the Caribbean and the hemisphere. Guyanese ask you, David Granger, to concede, allow our elected President, Dr Irfaan Ali, to lead us through the 21st century, allow the will of the Guyanese people to prevail. Concede, if Bouterse did it, you can surely do the same.

Sincerely,
David Adams