Dear Editor,

RECENTLY, the PPP engaged in a demonstration during which they called for early elections. Unlike in a period of time not so long ago, no one was shot by members of the Guyana Police Force. The PPP demonstrators were exercising their constitutional right to demonstrate. That right is respected by the David Granger administration.

But sir, I was taken aback by the words of Mr Samuel Hinds, a former Prime Minister and President of this country. Mr Hinds called on President Granger and his cabinet of minister’s to resign immediately.

Not so long ago the same Mr Samuel Hinds while prime minister had occupied a Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) parliamentary seat which the Alliance For Change had won. Mr Hinds squatted on that seat while the matter engaged the attention of the courts of the land. I could be wrong about this and pardon me if I am, but I recall that this matter was never determined by the court. Rather, it was overtaken by time, having yet been undetermined by the time another national election was held.

Did Mr Hinds honour calls for him to relinquish the seat he was allegedly illegally occupying? Did it matter to Mr Samuel Hinds that he was holding the office of prime minister while the world watched as he held fast to a parliamentary seat to which he was allegedly not entitled?

Did it matter to Mr Mr Samuel Hinds that a short while before he commenced occupation of that Region 10 parliamentary seat, the High Court of the land had vitiated the elections of the immediate past Parliament? Did it matter to Mr Samuel Hinds that he had only recently been forced to step down from the office of prime minister so that another could have taken his place, be elevated to the presidency only to reappoint Mr Hinds to the office of prime minister?

Mr Editor, would it not be fair to say that Mr Mr Samuel Hinds’ call for the President and his cabinet to resign is in fact an act of hypocrisy?

Yours faithfully,
Mervyn Williams, MP
Ministerial Adviser.