Block attempts to return to pre-1992 - PPP/Civic tells Constitution Reform Commission Guyana Chronicle April 18, 1999 THE governing People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) has suggested to the Constitution Reform Commission that its most urgent task is to preserve the democratic gains since the country's return to democracy at the October 5, 1992 national elections. In submissions presented by General Secretary, Mr. Donald Ramotar to the commission at City Hall Friday night, the PPP/Civic declared that constitutional reform cannot stop the "political blackmail" and "naked power play" that surfaced after the December 1997 national elections that the People's National Congress (PNC) lost. "An objective analysis of recent developments will reveal that what occurred in January and June 1998 was a naked power play by the manipulation of ethnic sentiments and ethnic violence", Ramotar told the commission. "This type of political blackmail cannot be vanquished by constitutional reform. Only public opinion, the political resolve of the peaceful and democratic majority, a dedication to ethnic unity and the elimination of poverty can defeat the forces of dictatorship which are alive and well and determined to return us to the past", he argued. Much of the background to constitutional reform "is being conveniently ignored today", he told the commission, adding that the PPP/Civic believed "it is vital to the success of your work that you review these matters." "We have given careful consideration over a long period of time to constitutional reform and to the measures which can be adopted to develop a society in which all Guyanese feel that their views are being heard, their rights are protected and that they have a legitimate share in the resources which are available." The alliance's submissions considered proposals "in the public domain and the sentiments regarding ethnic insecurity, minority rights and power sharing which have been expressed", he said. Ramotar noted that political power was seized in Guyana in 1968 when general elections were "obscenely rigged." "Thereafter, electoral engineering assumed ever more blatant forms. The crudities of the electoral malpractices were exposed because the democratic forces in Guyana, of which the PPP was the main element, resisted the manipulation and laid bare for the world to see the gross violation of human and fundamental rights in Guyana. "The dictatorship, which was established in Guyana after 1968, was characterised by oppression, racial and political discrimination, economic disintegration, political violence against opposition forces, police and judicial harassment leading to false charges and false imprisonment and political assassination. Mass migration and mass impoverishment were some of the major consequences", he recounted. "We need to remind those whose memories are conveniently short, that the most audaciously and shamelessly rigged elections in the history of elections rigging in Guyana occurred in 1985. It was only after the most exacting struggle aided by a changed international environment that free and fair elections were ultimately won", he said. Ramotar recalled that in 1964 the PPP, the main partner in the current PPP/Civic alliance, secured the largest bloc of votes at the general elections, but not an overall majority. "We were then a minority. We are today, in alliance with the civic forces, in a majority. Yesterday's minority is today's majority. "So it can be in the future in Guyana's political and ethnic landscape. It is against this background of shifting minorities and majorities, alliances and allegiances, that the basic law must be framed to preserve a democratic Guyana and to prevent a return to the past", he advocated. He said the PPP/Civic saw this as the commission's fundamental objective. "Any attempt by the Commission to consider constitutional reform in a context of pandering to those with threatening language and mailed fist, those who entertain an historic and deep-seated revulsion for democratic principles and norms, will fail", he contended. According to Ramotar, the ethnic violence unleashed in Georgetown in January and June 1998 in response to a call to make the country ungovernable and during last month in response to a call for war in an attempt to overthrow the lawfully elected PPP/Civic Government, "has given rise to a call for power sharing in the form of a coalition Government." "There are many who genuinely share this sentiment but some of those making this call believe that the only way to achieve their objective is to beat it into perceived supporters of the PPP/Civic in the streets of Georgetown. "A coalition government by way of power sharing through constitutional engineering will fail because the conditions in the society do not exist to ensure its success. In any event, it will be counterproductive to ethnic security, the destruction of ethnic voting patterns and to political stability." He stated that such a form of power sharing would result in the entrenchment of ethnic political enclaves. The PPP/Civic argued that constitutional reform must address the rights of the Guyanese people as a whole and protect them against a return to dictatorship. "We have seen the abundant evidence that such conditions as we have experienced in the past spare no one, not even those who then mistakenly believed and those who might now believe that their security would be preserved. "We hear much talk today about the minority but we must talk about all minorities who together make up the majority", Ramotar told the commission. He said the PPP bore the brunt of the dictatorship's excesses, later joined by other democratic forces, all of whom suffered grievously. "What about their rights and those of our supporters and the guarantees to them against being assaulted on the streets and against a return to the days of oppression? Who are speaking up for the victims of yesterday? What about the new victims who will be created if we again cower in fear and fail to speak out in bold constitutional terms?" He said the dictatorship was not established in Guyana in 1968 and maintained thereafter to protect any ethnic minority. It resulted from the "age-old desire to hold political power at all costs regardless of the consequences", he stated. "It is wrong to attribute the dictatorship to ethnic insecurity just as it would be egregiously wrong now to attribute the events after the December 1997 elections to anything other than an undemocratic determination to return Guyana to the pre-1992 era", Ramotar maintained. He told the commission that under these prevailing conditions, its "most urgent task" was to make the democratic gains since 1992 irreversible "and not to succumb to the temptation to reward those who contemptuously throw down the gauntlet of terror to the law abiding citizenry." He advised those seeking political power to follow the PPP which took the "legitimate path of patient and painstaking political work, developing policies, building confidence, establishing alliances, observing internal democracy and otherwise engaging in all forms of creative and constructive political activity." Ramotar said the PPP has paid its dues and has been rewarded by the confidence placed in the alliance of the PPP/Civic by the electorate. He noted that at the December 15, 1997 elections, the PPP/Civic was returned to government with 55 per cent of the popular vote. "The most remarkable feature of this result, ignored by almost all observers, is that if it is true that ethnic considerations affect voting patterns, then it must be conceded that the PPP/Civic was able to win important cross-ethnic support. "This is no surprise to us as it is the end to which we have always worked with persistence and dedication to the peoples' interest and to the building of ethnic unity", he said. The PPP/Civic believed, from its experience, that ethnic security "can only be assured when political parties stop appealing to ethnic sentiments or to inciting ethnic violence and begin, like the PPP/Civic, to promote ethnic peace and harmony." "We concede that achieving cross-ethnic support is no easy task but if others follow the trail we have blazed since 1950, ethnic insecurity will be significantly reduced", Ramotar said. The PPP/Civic, he said, recognised "the deep ethnic and political divisions in our society and the need to address them." "The way to do so is to eliminate the vestiges of the years of dictatorship which still persist, to continue to rebuild our institutions and strengthen their capacity for independent judgement and decision-making and establish new institutions where necessary. "We need to expand human and fundamental rights and responsibilities and enlarge the possibilities for democratic participation and inclusiveness in governance", he told the commission. The session was chaired by commission member and Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Reepu Daman Persaud. Ramotar was backed by a six-member delegation consisting of Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, Labour Minister, Dr. Henry Jeffrey, Mr. Cyril Belgrave, Ms. Pauline Sukhai, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran and Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan.