Of democracy and justice "When a media camera was as dangerous as a free vote" By Rickey Singh Guyana Chronicle July 22, 1998 PEOPLE across the Caribbean following developments in Guyana would know that not just one, but two quite significant and related happenings took place within 48 hours in Georgetown last week. First, on Tuesday, there was the book launching of "Justice - The Struggle for Democracy in Guyana (1952-1992)". On the following day, the main opposition People's National Congress (PNC) finally ended its boycott of parliament by taking up the 25 seats won at the December 15, 1997 elections that returned the PPP/Civic to a second term with 36 seats and over 55 per cent of the valid votes. The PNC's participation in the parliamentary process, with its elected representatives taking the oath to "honour, uphold and preserve the Constitution", is certainly a victory for commonsense and political maturity over the bizarre accusations about the "Illegitimacy" of an elected government and threats to make the country "ungovernable". Similar dangerous rhetoric have since come from the Unity Labour Party (ULP) in St Vincent and the Grenadines after capturing much more votes than the incumbent New Democratic Party (NDP)- 54.6 per cent to the NDP's 45.3 per cent - but failing by a single seat from capturing the government from Prime Minister James Mitchell at last month's (June 15) election. Questions are now being asked in and out of St Vincent, whether Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments will also be requested to become involved in post-election problems in that Eastern Caribbean state - whose Prime Minister, incidentally, was one of the initiators of `The St.Lucia Statement on Guyana'. That seems doubtful at this time, but in politics, all things are possible. Without counting its intervention by United States invitation in the military invasion of Grenada in October 1983, that included eight of its members, CARICOM felt obliged to become involved in political disturbances, of varying proportions and implications, in Trinidad and Tobago (1990); St Kitts and Nevis (1993) and Guyana (1998). It is still involved in quiet efforts at preserving the territorial integrity of St Kitts and Nevis by way of a high-level team of West Indian experts examining the implications of the threat by tiny Nevis, with a population of some 10,000, to secede from St Kitts - an issue that goes to referendum on August 10. CARICOM's involvement in the varying political problems in these countries could be linked to the dangers posed to the democratic process and challenge to the Rule of Law. `Justice' launched In Guyana last week, with the launching of the book `Justice', those familiar with the struggles for democracy and justice in the post-independence era under the rule of the PNC, would undoubtedly have recalled the years of electoral fraud, political terrorism, denial of press freedom, erosion of the independence of the judicial system, fear and degradation of a people. Among the best known victims of political murder were the historian Walter Rodney and the priest/photographer, Bernard Darke. Author of the 419-page book, a most valuable 40-year record in Guyana's history, is Fr Andrew Morrison, a 79-year-old Jesuit Priest, well known within the region's Roman Catholic community and beyond for his sheer tenacity, courage and commitment to press freedom while serving as editor of the weekly `Catholic Standard', a position he held for some 18 years - from 1976 to 1994. Morrison is the recipient of a number of regional and international awards for his contributions to press freedom, including one from the Caribbean Publishing and Broadcasting Association, Inter-American Press Association and the International Catholic Press Association. Appropriately, the book launch ceremony was arranged to coincide with the 19th anniversary of the brutal murder of Morrison's colleague, Fr. Bernard Darke, priest and photographer of the Standard, chased, beaten and stabbed to death by a marauding mob in Georgetown when supporters of the then ruling PNC clashed with those of the opposition, including Walter Rodney's Working People's Alliance. There were plausible reasons at the time for many Guyanese, across the political divide, to think that Darke's murder was a tragic case of mistaken identity. Darke's attackers felt that they were pursuing to kill Fr Morrison, the Standard's editor who was treated as an "enemy" of successive PNC regimes, and who has some striking physical characteristics of his slain colleague. Morrison will, within a matter of weeks, be in Trinidad and Jamaica to launch and autograph his book. Discussing developments under a "constitutional dictatorship" and against the background of abuse of the electoral system with "fairy tale elections", as he said, Morrison has captured more than the dark time for freedom of the press and freedom to choose a government. It was a period in Guyana's history of turbulent politics when a camera in the hands of a professional media photographer was as dangerous a weapon as a ballot freely cast in a fair poll. Incidentally, local media professional who were abused and physically attacked - two of them had their cameras forcibly taken away during recent street demonstrations by the PNC, are still waiting for at least a denunciation by the PNC of such behaviour. What begins in Morrison's absorbing book "from the vantage point of an editor-priest" from the "early (Cheddi) Jagan years, starting with the take-over by the state of church-run schools in 1960 - a process completed and fully enforced later by Forbes Burnham's PNC - ends with the latest threat to democracy and the rule of law by the post 1997 election politics of the PNC. The Hoyte years Given the posturings and the troubles created by the PNC that are so very much in current thinking on Guyana, the reports and analyses in `Justice' of "The Hoyte Years" make the book all the more relevant as, Albert Rodrigues, Chairman of the Catholic Standard Board, states, "an invaluable source of information on modern Guyanese history". Interestingly enough, after its examination of "The Burnham Years" and the implications for Guyana and Guyanese of the politics of "Big Brotherism", the book, which informs readers of the long and close links between Burnham and Hoyte, begins its focus on "The Hoyte Years" in Part Five of "Another Fairy Tale Election" (December 1985). When the election of that year took place, records Morrison, "the hopes of all who had longed for a change were completely shattered", pointing out that "rigging was so clumsy, documentation has been easy...." There were to follow a series of repressive acts that affected the church, trade unions, the media and posed serious threats to civil liberties with fear over judicial independence also linked to decisions in the court on libel cases involving the Catholic Standard. Those who would like Guyanese and Caribbean people to forget the past under 28 years of successive governments under the PNC, and in particular those in the PNC now clamouring for constitutional reform (reforming a PNC-framed constitution) good governance and even hints of `power-sharing', would not be comfortable with Morrison's `Justice'. But there is the danger of surrendering the future if we conveniently ignore the past. It is, therefore, in the interest of Guyanese of all political persuasions, race and religion to get hold of a copy of `Justice'. It affords the opportunity to follow the lucid reporting and analyses of events and developments of a most important period in Guyana's modern history, all chronicled by a priest whose contributions are appreciated across political, ethnic and religious boundaries - whatever the machinations of those who, at varying periods, posed the greatest threats to democracy and civil liberties.