Dear Editor

CHRISTOPHER Ram wrote that Act No 2 of 2000 has nothing to do with the Elections Commission; that rather it has to do with taxes. Ram should apologise to the nation for misleading it. This establishes that my date was absolutely correct. Unfortunately, in an attempt to dispute the facts, Mr. Ram sought employment at Brass Aluminum Fabrication, and fabricated his own history of events. Thank heavens that President Granger had the foresight to see that Ram is not a fit and proper person!

It is mind-boggling that Chris Ram and Komal Ramkarran would seek refuge in the view that it was a consensus clause, rather than face the reality that this clause was initiated by Jagdeo and the PPP. Suddenly, the PPP cannot remember who initiated it! Even their two spokespersons, Teixeira and Nandlall, are struck by convenient amnesia. Let me remind them: Jagdeo and the PPP did. In the history of the National Assembly, all Bills that were tabled and debated while the PPP was in government came from the PPP. Raphael Trotman did table a Freedom of Information Bill. It never saw the light of day! Jagdeo and the PPP refused to have it debated.

To state that the Act was assented to by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, performing the functions of President, doesn’t help, even though it is true. It was well known that Sam Hinds was an innocuous Prime Minister, who acted in keeping with the Jagdeo’s script. In essence, it was Jagdeo’s doing. Hinds assented to it because the dictator, Jagdeo, was overseas. It WAS a PPP Bill.

Please don’t raise the argument that Jagdeo didn’t assent to Bill No. 2 of 2000, and that the Bill was unanimous. He did, since there were a number of Bills in the same process that were unanimous that he disagreed with and refused to assent to and make law. Among them is Bill No. 18 of 2000 in the Constitution Amendment process. He created history by being the first President in Guyana to not assent to a Bill that was unanimous. This law that entrenches unilateralism is Jagdeo and the PPP’s DOING, and it has returned to haunt them. No fabrication by Chris Ram could change the fact that in 2000, the law was passed and assented to under Jagdeo’s presidency.

I find it the summit of stupidity for a lawyer to ask, “How did Aubrey Norton vote on the issue?” having asserted that the Act was a consensus/unanimous document. The senior Ramkarran, who is a knowledgeable person, should advise him that you don’t vote in such circumstances; the Speaker merely notes that the ‘ayes’ have it.

Regards
AUBREY C. NORTON