Dear Editor,

I MUST agree with Mr. Jermaine Figueira’s letter to the Editor, “GECOM Chair’s lens not blurred by ethnicity”, in the Guyana Chronicle of June 03, with specific reference to the paragraph which reads: “It appears quite obvious that the PPP/C expects a certain adherence to their whims and fancies, because of the woman’s ethnicity, hence their unscrupulous, Machiavellian behaviour.”

This is not only a fair and objective assessment, as to the PPP/C’s subsequent hostile attitude, which has amounted to an all-out declaration of war on Madame Justice retired Claudette Singh, Chairperson of GECOM, but also a very accurate assessment as to its well-known culture of only being comfortable with Indo-Guyanese in certain critical positions of State, whom it perceives is expected to do its biddings, irrespective of the morality involved.

In saying this, one would have recalled its immediate, all-out assault against the person of Dr. Steve Surujbally, a former Commissioner of GECOM, because he dared to cast the deciding vote that brought Gocool Boodoo’s tenure as Chief Elections Officer to an end, after he had been caught red-handed attempting to rig the 2011 elections. Surujbally was literally hounded from his tenure, for doing what had been right; removing a CEO for a criminal act, for which he ought to have been prosecuted. The significant aspect of that case was the refusal of the PPP/C-nominated commissioners to vote for the removal of Boodoo, because of reasons best known to themselves. The nation had been warned ever since!

Coming into the new dispensation of the Coalition government, was to experience attacks/accusations against the national electoral body, alleging ethnic imbalance in its staffing. This was to become the PPP/C’s mantra, especially against the background of its favoured candidate, another Indo- Guyanese not receiving the Commission’s nod for the DCEO position. But what was quite evident to all was the fact that it had been the same ethnically-composed commission staff that had been delivering several election victories to the PPP/C. It was a bird that could not fly.

The appointment of Madame Claudette Singh to the Chair was unique for the departure from the traditional line of the president making the choice from a list of names, submitted by the Leader of the Opposition, to one of a consensual approach, as suggested by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), after it had ruled that the President’s appointment of Justice James Patterson had been ‘unconstitutional’. And, therein, one would have discerned the glee of the Bharrat Jagdeo and company in the appointment of Madame Singh, the eminent jurist. There was a definite hint of triumphalism in the PPP/C’s reaction; but there was also a clear hint of the Machiavellian, as accurately pinpointed by Figueira, perhaps concluding that they had finally been able to have a chairperson to do their bidding. But they were quite mistaken; they flatter to deceive.

Thus, apart from the fact that the PPP/C had a careful plot mapped out to discredit the GECOM, as illustrated in ‘The Plot against GECOM’ of May 19 in the Guyana Chronicle, it became even more vicious, since it was crystal clear that Madame Justice Singh intended that she was going to function as an independent Chairperson, ensuring that there be consensus on matters, as much as this could be obtained, but that the GECOM’S autonomy and independence be upheld and be respected, as she was not going to be anybody’s puppet, except executing the Constitutional wishes of the Commission. As she stuck to her guns, the attacks from the Jagdeo PPP/C; the pro-PPP/C media; the Gerry Gouveias; the Guyana Bar Association; and the entire array of shameful mouthpieces of the Opposition cabal, inclusive of a category of miserable political trolls, became more abusive.

This particular chapter of the post-No-Confidence Motion (NCM) has exposed the PPP/C’s mindset actions against those of any kind of Indo-Guyanese background, when they do not act in “adherence” to the “whims and fancies” of the political storm troopers, as rightly explained by Figueira. We have witnessed the callous, disrespectful, and outright misogynist assault carried out by a pack of political hyenas on the dignified person of Madame Chair. It has been the most abysmal chapter in this nation’s political history. How can they be proud Guyanese, respecting the rule of law, which they mouth conveniently?
The dark deeds now being brought up from those ballot boxes, under forensic scrutiny, is a vivid manifestation of the corruption and sleazy acts that are used by such a political party that deploys race as its main consideration for attempts at control of such a key aspect of the nation’s democracy: Its electoral system, to deliver an election of its expectations. It would seem that its end-product was also to bring the impeccable reputation of the Chairperson into disrepute. But its organisers and executors have been disappointed, since it is the Constitutional dictates that are being satisfied, and not being carried out because of race/ethnicity. It is as a result of this that GECOM is now confronted with its biggest challenge, of a fraudulent nature, brought about by those who could not have risen above the dangerous, narrow confines of race/ethnicity. It is this mess, created by those whose respect for the Constitution has been atrocious, which GECOM now has to remedy; to find solutions in the national interest. It is a perfect example of what those who intend to rule by race, and its domination is about. But Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh has shown what true adherence to the Constitution is all about; that it supersedes race, and all such narrow considerations for the greater good.

Regards,
Aditya Panday