I recently read a letter penned by Dr Henry Jeffrey captioned: “A PPP constitution not a PNC” posted in the Stabroek News and was utterly dismayed at the depth of this man’s depravity with-which he has the gall to put the PPP and the PNC in the same basket. This politician who has had the fraudulent opportunity in gaining the benefits of both sides of the political divide is doing it again. He, is making up an apology for his buddies seeing he is now on the opposite side. He is talking from the other side of his mouth that the constitution is an orchestration of the PPP. What nonsense!   Let me refresh Jeffrey with a piece of shameful PNC history. Soon after taking office in 1964, Burnham and his PNC acolytes quickly went to work. They first rushed us through to  independence from the British in 1966, who by the way, facilitated the takeover from Jagan’s PPP. Our independence just a mere two years down the road was Burnham’s way of taking control, a word he constantly used throughout his years, “taking control of the commanding heights of our economy.”  
To have that control he craved, and to which some of those people like Jeffrey granted him the adulation, he thereafter took us into a republic. That was 1970. After taking care of the British, he then turned his attention locally to change the constitution so that an opposition would be no worry.  Burnham the belligerent dictator spared no pains at changing things to suit his illegal PNC party. Everything bore a PNC stamp in some form or another; persons forcefully pledged allegiance to the party, had to show a party card or tell them that you voted for the party to get a job. That was the stranglehold the PNC had on this country and its citizens.  
Their illegal occupancy was finally solidified in 1980 with the ushering in of the Burnham constitution. I vividly remember the 1980 campaign of “vote for the house and not the mouse” a horrible display of bullyism over the opposition PPP.
That referendum was a vote by PNC supporters only because the majority stayed away from the polls; yet Burnham could have boasted of having 100% support for his constitutional change. So we were saddled with that draconian constitution which gave sweeping powers to the president, among other things. Burnham’s constitution was modified after the PPP/C came to office to make it more workable and people friendly. That’s the PPP constitution Jeffrey is talking about. He is insinuating that the PPP/C making changes to the laws of this country must now take ownership of everything. And that everything means that they should have made a constitution where the opposition – moreso the PNC/APNU- would still have the upper hand in power; something similar to the situation in parliament right now.

At the end of the day it was the PPP/C government that modified the constitution so that the PNC/APNU could have some say in the way government is run. Then, it is right to say that it is the PPP/C that facilitated the opposition to have their say to the point of becoming abusive and overbearing. Hitherto, the opposition had no say, no relevance whatsoever in the run of things here. But Jeffrey can be amnesiac in his discourse on this now. Funny how some people can be so educated, yet behave as if they’re not. How did he get his doctorate?