The following is an opinion piece by Ryhaan Shah
The letter pages continue to be filled with comments from letter writers who are outraged by the brazen attempts at fraud being carried out by the PNC and its co-conspirators in APNU/AFC and GECOM.
In their good cop/bad cop routine, David Granger plays the good cop and emerges on occasion to mouth appropriate lines from their playbook that he will abide by the Constitution which he has yet to do starting with upholding the No-Confidence Motion of December 2018 that removed him and his Government from office.
He and his Cabinet, however, continue to squat in their various public offices and are presenting various and conflicting narratives hoping, perhaps, that one will stick and deliver the elusive electoral victory that they so desperately seek. The “Jamaica Observer” in a recent article about our post-election impasse rightly dubbed it a circus referring no doubt to the most bizarre performances that could possibly be presented.
The PNC and its loyalists are also trying to contain their circus to a one-ring act with the PPP/C as their lone target while studiously ignoring the fact that their brazen and shameful attempt at electoral fraud has long since attracted the condemnation of the entire democratic world.
It is not only the smaller political parties who also have a stake in the March 2020 elections outcome that are standing strong in the cause of democracy. Also aligned against the PNC attempts at electoral fraud are the world’s leading democracies of the US, UK, Canada and the European Union, and organisations such as the OAS, the Commonwealth, The Carter Center, and our own regional Caricom.
While some of the public commentators who once supported the coalition Government have found the attempted fraud too much to bear and defend, some letter writers who once appeared fairminded and principled have now borne themselves as PNC loyalists.
The impasse is showing us in our truest colours. Those who are prepared to publicly defend the PNC’s attempts at fraud are standing bravely by their justifications and explanations no matter how abhorrent they might appear when viewed through the lens of facts, truth, and what is known universally about the PNC’s post-election shenanigans.
There is no shame, however, and while the PNC and its loyalists are trying to portray the impasse as a lone battle with their political foe, the PPP/C, they are undoubtedly aware that the entire global establishment that upholds and defends democracy is watching as their plot unfolds daily.
This struggle has long since gone beyond the narrow confines of being a localised political issue. At stake is the respect for democratic norms and values in every country where such conventions are upheld. No democracy anywhere will stand by and have Guyana slip back into dictatorship.
The PNC and its co-conspirators would do well to consider this fact as they look to their future as not only a political party in Guyana but as one that would want to be respected and viewed by the world as a guardian of democracy whenever they are returned to Government.
