AUGUST 9 marked three years since a motion of no-confidence was tabled in the National Assembly. The motion contains 10 little words: “That this National Assembly has no confidence in the Government.”
Those were the 10 words that shook Guyana; that triggered a change of government for only the second time in post-independent Guyana.

That historic motion was moved by me and seconded by Catherine Hughes on behalf of the Alliance For Change (AFC), after we were assured support from the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU). Together, the APNU+AFC had a one-seat majority in the National Assembly.
The motion was against the Donald Ramotar-led People’s Progressive Party (PPP/Civic) Government, which was unpopular, corrupt and incompetent.

SHORT MEMORIES
I have decided to re-visit the no-confidence motion, since a few new-born critics seem to have short memories of what was, and against what the Guyanese people fought just three years ago.
The motion was submitted on the eve of the parliamentary recess, so there was no way that a debate could take place. It was published and afterwards placed on the Order Paper for debate on November 10, 2014.

Before that the PPP Government had mocked the Opposition during debates in the National Assembly over the possibility of a no-confidence motion. “Bring it on!” their MPs would shout in a bovine chorus. But in anticipation of that ever happening, the Government refused to convene sittings of the National Assembly for months before the recess.

FRESH ELECTIONS
Away from the pompous and arrogant, political braggadocio in the House, some cronies of the PPP in business circles were busy trying to throw water on any such motion. On June 30, 2014, the Private Sector Commission (PSC), like the proverbial Moongazer, predicted that a no-confidence motion would bring instability, and expressed pessimism over fresh elections.

They were aware that upon the passage of a no-confidence motion, fresh elections have to be held within 90 days. Section 106 of the Constitution provides, inter alia, that “The Cabinet and President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of the majority of all Members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
To avoid making any compromise or suffer defeat on the battle-ground of a parliamentary debate, the PPP decided to fall on its own sword. President Ramotar ill-advisedly prorogued Parliament on the very day (November 10) on which Parliament was to reconvene and the motion could possibly be debated. He then dissolved the House, and set fresh elections for May 11, 2015. The results were predictable.

IMMEDIATE CAUSE
The general cause for the removal from office of that post-Jagan PPP government was its pervasive corruption. The immediate cause was the unlawful spending by the Minister of Finance of $4.5 billion which was specifically not approved by the National Assembly. He did so in clear violation of the Constitution of Guyana and had wrongly felt that a Statement of Excess could not cure his government’s illegality. The then AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan wanted him to be jailed for criminal conduct.
So, when I was asked why the no-confidence motion had only 10 words, my reply was that it mirrored one of the admonitions of the biblical 10 Commandments: “Thou shall not steal.”

CRIME LIST
The defeat of the post-Jagan PPP was surgical. It was the initial step taken by the Guyanese electorate in free and fair elections to exorcise the unrestrained ghost of corruption that had feasted on our National Treasury and had contaminated public life. There were other issues that had made up the “Crime List”, which include –
* Denial of local government elections;
* Refusal of President Ramotar to assent opposition bills;
* Failure to set up the Public Procurement Commission;
* Non-appointment of a Chairman of the Integrity Commission;
* Diversion of billions of dollars to the regime’s cash cow, NICIL;
* Unlawful distribution of radio and television licences to friends, families and cronies;
* Misuse of state resources and media for party political purposes;
* Use of confidential tax information to shut up government critics;
* Harassment of the free media and independent journalists.

UNDILUTED VENDETTA
Before and after the corrupt and incompetent government fell, I understood why the Jagdeoites had launched an undiluted vendetta — replete with cuss words — against me. I had walked away from the Augean Stables!
The common line was that I had sold out to the PNC which, in post-Jagan parlance, was like teaming up with the Devil. The latest regurgitation of this racist, hate venom came after my participation in a State function to commemorate the 32nd death anniversary of Forbes Burnham, late Prime Minister and President of Guyana.

While we must seek knowledge and guidance from the past, we cannot be a slave to it. There are some who cannot let go of the past. They let it intrude into our present and to even overshadow our future. In his lifetime, Cheddi Jagan understood that he could not forever be a prisoner of the past. That was why he had often said that Guyana should return to the 1950s when there was racial and working-class unity.

His reliance on dialectics for guidance led him to propose in 1964 a PPP-PNC coalition government with joint premiership between him and Burnham. In 1975, two years after rigged elections, he offered “critical support” for the Burnham (PNC) Government and hailed the regime’s “anti-imperialist” stance and nationalisation policy, though he didn’t think that it went far enough.

Ten years later, after the death of Walter Rodney and more rigged elections in 1980, Cheddi Jagan again was working behind the scene to form a coalition government between the PPP and the PNC. He would have shared leadership of a government of national unity as prime minister with his erstwhile comrade, had President Burnham not died suddenly on August 6, 1985.

SECURE PLACE FOR HEROES
Looking back and retracing our footsteps into our contemporary political history, would we conclude that Cheddi Jagan had betrayed us by engaging Forbes Burnham in unity talks? I don’t think so, not at all!
Now that both Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham are deceased, there should be a secure place at the Seven Ponds for Heroes for all of Guyana’s former Presidents.

History will certainly settle on their roles in Guyana’s development but, for now, we should step back from a verdict that stems from naked political and racial hate. We cannot, depending which side of the political line we are, dangle our founding leaders as spectres of scorn and fear, instead as symbols of our complicated struggles and our nationhood.
For those who love to come after me or my government, I say: hate is ugly. Try 10 pretty words next time!