Dear Editor,
A SIMPLE, common sense understanding of the reason(s) for a vote of no-confidence to be tabled in any parliament against an incumbent government, is that it should be debated when there is a political-social–economic crisis in a jurisdiction.

It is agreed that the extant conditions have to be of such that would give rise to the kind of administrative paralysis, that signals that state organs are no longer able to deliver vital services to citizens, and where there is no specific sense of direction in terms of solving the problems that would have given rise to the ensuing conditions. In other words, there has to be a combined environment that threatens stability.

For citizens, this signals uncertainty; and it is the kind of almost uncertain milieu that would invite such a political attack from a political opposition. No such situation existed in Guyana, for such a reckless and devious act that had been hatched in the dark corridors of the political opposition and its affiliates with vested interest.

It is now very clear that the motion of no-confidence tabled against the coalition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), is perhaps the final and central piece of a political plot cum treachery by the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), that began almost immediately after its defeat at the May 2015 National and Regional elections.

Almost from the inception of this new dispensation, the Bharat Jagdeo–led opposition never accepted its relegation to the benches of being political opposition. Its vehement, dishonest criticisms of the government over the collapse of the sugar industry, despite its naked culpability in its collapse, and the government having to rescue this failed industry; its constant parliamentary attacks against the person of the Prime Minister; its shocking disrespect of the President when he addressed a session of Parliament; and calling on its stronghold regions not to work with the government, are just a sample of the orchestrated campaign, designed and carried out against the current administration.

To have supported sections of the business and commerce sector to hoard foreign currency when there was no reason; and to accuse the government of being the ‘’most corrupt in the history of CARICOM”, presents an opposition that through its campaign of nasty social media racism, fake news and arrant lies, had been prepared to journey to any length of perfidy to foment a social state of national strife and destabilisation, in preparation for its dishonest and dubious plot of a no-confidence vote. And, there are other dark deceptions, machinations, and subterfuge, all aimed at undermining a government that had been duly elected by a democratic vote.

These have been carried out in an orchestration that included other vested interest types such, as sections of the private media that gave place of refuge to former, discredited opposition politicians and high state officials who have been using its sanctuary not only to sanitise themselves politically, but also write scurrilous lies about the government; the private sector, some of whose members are no longer able to be tax dodgers, and be beneficiaries of the proceeds of the criminal state which existed under their former benefactor, the PPP/C.

While these unpatriotic and anti-national elements continued to perpetrate their collective high mischief against the coalition government and the country, the coalition, have since 2015, been undertaking programmes of national socio-economic renewal, for the restoration of a battered country that it had inherited, and in which large segments of its demography had been criminally marginalised and discriminated against; removing the chilling murderous memory of death squads and extra judicial killings from the national psyche; and combatting institutionalised corruption that involved so many former PPP/C state officials, and the general fear and apprehension that had become the new understanding of a nation that by 2015 had completely lost its moral direction.

It has since restored Guyana’s international image, that had been branded as a “Mafia state” by an official from the United States Department of State, as well as becoming known as a significant drug transshipment point; through instituting many steps to ensure the upholding of the Rule of Law, inclusive of the rights of citizens, and the ending of extra judicial killings; the gradual reformation of the security sector for delivery of effective professional services to the nation; a judiciary now able to be truly independent; increasing minimum wage by over 50 per cent since 2015, from $39,570 to $60,000; the further increases of wages and salaries for 2018 as outlined in Budget 2019, and guaranteed for 2019, and 2020; the 55 per cent increases in old age pension since 2015 and tax exemptions for persons with disabilities.

Add to these seminal improvements since 2015, are billions spent in social infrastructure, such as street lighting, and roads for African communities that were totally ignored by the PPP/c government. Even Indo communities have been benefitting from these restoration and improvement to environment projects.

Other initiatives have been communities throughout Guyana accessing water for the first time; the over 100 internet hubs established across Guyana, inclusive of the hinterland, with virtually all schools now having free internet services; reduced house lot costs, and a revamped housing initiative that all Guyanese can afford. The indigenous communities are now being empowered to become self-sufficient; the depoliticisation of the National Toshao Council which now allows toshaos and their respective communities to determine their socio-economic development; and the commissioning of community radio stations.

Hinterland and Amerindian development are taking on a new vista, with Indigenous communities now being empowered to become self-sufficient through socio-economic projects. There has also been the commissioning of community radio stations in different hinterland locations; the creation of four new towns that forms the vanguard for the creation of capital towns; the decentralisation of public services such as those for the registration of birth certificates, passports, and receipt of the documents in their specific locales; and the successful training of Amerindian youths under the aegis of the Hinterland Employment Youth Service (HEYS) programme.

Above all, there has been the restoration of local democracy at the grass roots level, in accordance with the constitutional mandate of Local Government Elections (LGEs) that have now been held within its stipulated time frame. It was a constitutional exercise that had been totally ignored during the 23-years of PPP/C power.

This represents but a fraction of the innumerable achievements of the coalition government since 2018, and which would have brought much improvement to the socio-economic lives of Guyanese, inclusive of PPP/C and their communities. This surely did not and cannot constitute a socio-economic crisis to have occasioned the tabling of a no- confidence motion against the current coalition administration.

This was no government which did not have the confidence of the people as those who lust for power, because of the imminent flow of oil, egregiously claimed. Instead, it was a carefully, contrived plot of the utmost treachery that sought to fulfill the personal ambition, lascivious greed and lust for power, spearheaded by a few, influenced primarily by the quantum of race and oil.

In fact, to bandy, as some have been deceptively doing, that the results represented an advancement of the democratic process, is to degrade and insult the true meaning of this axis of liberal tenets, and a disservice as to its dynamics. It is also a willful and self– deceptively, ascribed understanding of the processes of a no-confidence motion. This has been plainly, a treacherous assault on democracy for wholly personal ambitious ends, and not in the national interest.

Regards,
Mark DaCosta