…in electoral law?
Your Eyewitness is a tad confused. It was reported that the AG and the Opposition Leader have agreed to changes in the electoral laws of the country. Really? What gives? The PNC agreeing with the PPP on electoral laws?? Isn’t this like a case of man bites dog?? After the history of the PNC rigging elections in Guyana since 1968 – and then witnessing their barefaced ATTEMPT last March – your Eyewitness smells a rat. And this rat’s been dead and rotting for a long time!!
So, he went back to the reports to try to see what’s going on. Seems the AG was being very specific to say he was looking at Canada to send experts to work with him to tighten the loopholes that allowed the fiasco that followed the very smooth elections day voting by Guyanese. He also talked about GECOM’s hiring practices – which were being investigated by the ERC but was aborted after then Chairman James Patterson, along with DCEO Roxanne Myers and the HR folks, refused to testify about what was going down in the GECOM Secretariat.
Harmon, on the other hand, simply said – when asked about the AG’s statement – that he had no problem with the Canucks providing “FUNDING for electoral reform and the work which has to be done with respect to any changes which have to be done to our constitution.” Now, you see why your Eyewitness’s eyebrows were raised – almost to be touching his forehead – when he heard about Harmon’s “agreement”?
The PNC are NEVER going to willingly agree to change anything to make elections more transparent; and even if they do, you should know that they’ll always have something up their sleeves. In 1968, they rigged by using (fictitious) overseas votes, but in 1973, while eliminating that following outraged protests, they went on to use the GDF to collect and “count” the ballots!! Then, in 1980, they just padded the lists and had every PNC supporter vote twice – or thrice as the case might be!! And so on and so forth.
Did anyone think any political party with any shame would actually instruct a Returning Officer to do what we all saw Mingo do at the Ashmins Building and then again with a dirty bedsheet at GECOM HQ? Your Eyewitness thinks the AG should start immediately with cleaning that Augean Stables that we call GECOM. We can do worse that have the ERC complete its investigation into their hiring practices and start again with a clean slate.
And for Guyana and our ethnic realities, a “clean slate” means that no one ethnic group should dominate the institution, like is the case right now.
It must be a GUYANESE cook-up!!
…in teachers’ culpability
Now, do you see, dear reader, why your Eyewitness had cautioned against cussing down CXC when it was reported that some of the results from our “top” schools weren’t what they’d predicted? It wasn’t that your Eyewitness felt CXC was infallible, but that he knew our teachers and our teaching system, since he’s had several of his offspring pass through their hands!
And what he knew – as he wrote in this space – was that whatever failure there was, the investigation would have to lay it at their feet. And as was said, so was done!! Now we hear that in the complaining schools the SBAs and grades weren’t submitted, or not submitted properly. And your Eyewitness also believes that if the truth were ever to be told, we’d find that some teachers had padded the marks of their favourite students – or the ones who took their “lessons”! The Minister now says she’s comfortable that 100% of SBAs will now be marked by CXC.
And said teachers will be held accountable. We’ll see.
…for COVID-19 discipline
Your Eyewitness believes that those entrusted with enforcing our COVID-19 rules and regulations will have to be much more vigilant. And this must start from the TOP.
There are still too many public functions with lax enforcement.
