Dear Editor
FOR a greater part of its 23 horrible years of governance, the former PPP/C regime used to describe October 5, 1992 as the date when democracy returned to Guyana. For me, this date had indeed been significant, since it ushered in a new government, replacing the Burnham-Hoyte PNC administrations after 28 years in office.

Editor, surely, any political talk of returning a country to democracy should mean for those who elected it to office–and the nation in general–a system of government and governance that would have significantly been improved; and one where their practical human rights as citizens are observed and respected; where there is no discrimination towards any section or category of society; where there is respect for the principal institutions of state and the rule of law duly observed. Let us say for the sake of debate, that these key areas are stated as being in need of change for the better, because of the understanding that is derived from the PPP/C slogan of a ‘Return to Democracy.’

It was nothing but a slogan and the biggest political con job that can only be second to the NCM hoax and the Charandass treachery, to have been heaped on this country by the PPP/C. It perhaps explained why such a deceptive shibboleth ceased being mooted by the party and its former regimes.

So, let us look at what was the PPP/C administrations meaning of a return to democracy for Guyana, during its years in office:
* The fostering of a criminalised state and the systematic cultivation of an equally criminal clique, who shamelessly pillaged and plundered the material assets of the state in all forms.

* The rise of transnational crime, and the institutionalisation of corruption, in which the narco economy flourished, and money laundering became the leading methodology of hiding the ill-gotten gains. The recent conviction and jailing of the now known case of the cash jet pilot Khamraj Lall, on money-laundering and narcotic charges, is just the tip of the iceberg of the tragedy of Guyana as a criminal state, a fact warned of and written extensively on by the distinguished Dr Clive Thomas, from as early as the opening years of the new millennium.

* The institutionalisation of racism as policy, and related acts of discrimination and marginalisation against sections of the nation; the shocking ignoring of the rule of law, during which death squads and extra-judicial killings became prominent features, as well as other excesses of rogue elements of the state security; the detention of persons without recourse to legal representation, and even beyond the statutory period of 72 hours of being detained. This must also include interference in the nation’s judiciary and the appointment of acting judges, which threatened their security of tenure.

* The open and glaring system of socio-economic discrimination that favoured one section of the nation, which facilitated the shifting of the national resources to the latter; the denial of social amenities/basic infrastructure to certain communities on the basis of perceived political affiliation and ethnicity.

* The denial of local democracy, through the refusal to hold local government elections for 20 years, which resulted in stagnation and corruption at the local government level. This was a trenchant disregard for a system of governance that has always been key for citizens’ grassroot participation in the affairs of their communities.

These are, what one can consider as some of the main incidents of criminal, politico-governance, and which the PPP/C fraudulently represented as the return to democracy, which really was Freedom House democracy!
Regards
Earl Hamilton