The Gang of Two and the foundation of life
Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
November 27, 2006
This is my second expression on the way I feel about the Chairman of the Elections Commission, Dr. Steve Surujbally and the Chief Election Officer, Mr. Gocool Boodoo. In a previous column some two weeks ago, I opined that they should not be allowed to continue in their respective positions in the Commission over the Region Ten seat snafu (if indeed there is something wrong about the vote-counting in that district) because of their failed PR.
I based my feeling on the fact that while the AFC was on the warpath yelling out that GECOM made a mistake and announced the wrong allocation of seats, the Gang of Two - Surujbally and Gocool (remember they are responsible for the arrangement of the election statistics and not the six commissioners who make policy) - nonchalantly chose to ignore the tradition of election controversy in this country and just ignore the claim of the AFC.
Now matters have reached into the swamp of quicksand – the PNC is saying that CN Sharma, on the basis of the total allocations, should be rewarded a seat on the left-over tally sheet.
In that previous column, my point was straightforward and simple – issue a statement and put the matter to rest. Either the AFC has a claim or it is politicking. If there is legitimacy in the shouts of the AFC, then find a way out but silence is not a virtue in the situation. But to date the Gang of Two is basking in Simon and Garfunkel's ballad.
I don't think I will ever become a businessman. I am not that young and do not have assets waiting for me. But if ever I had a few dozen millions and I invested it on Regent Street, any possibility of Government's intransigence that would likely cause harm to my business by protest would have made me into a vociferous watchdog of governmental behaviour.
In this case, it is not the government that is putting the country at risk but GECOM. Imagine your business can be assaulted by rioters if a protest against social injustice occurs and that could be prevented if responsible organisations perform their moral obligations to the nation.
The continuing insensitivity of the Gang of Two puts this country at risk because cries of election irregularity normally bring out dinosaur moods in some quarters of the society.
The AFC saga has been joined with the CN Sharma factor. Has there been a genuine mistake by the Gang of Two?
Once more, our country with a small population and consequently one of the smallest electorates among the nations of the world cannot get it right. But look at the shameful episode that is taking shape. Apart from the inaudibility and invisibility of the Gang of Two, some macabre explanations are emerging about the AFC/CN Sharma election question.
One is that the Gang of Two cannot act anymore because the vehicle of complaint has shifted gear towards the court.
One should not dignify such asininity. How can you owe me money, refuse to repay, then when I take you to court, you say that you are willing to pay now but the matter is before the court and let the court decide? No more should be said about this imbecilic reasoning.
The second dimension is exasperating. We are being told that since the results are gazetted, GECOM may not have the legal authority to vary the results even if mistakes in seat allocations were made. This argument, though plausible, is only one stage of a two-part process.
Let's assume that GECOM cannot alter the gazetted statistics, then so be it. Parliament will have to intervene or the courts can order the reallocation of party Parliamentarians. Such a process has no bearing on what GECOM must do. The Gang of Two must tell the nation if adjustments are justified. The Gang of Two has a deep and committed moral obligation to this country, which has been traumatised by election frauds throughout the past decades, to tell the Guyanese people that the seat allocations that they, the gang members, announced and made into law will have to be changed.
No one is saying that the Gang of Two must break the law and undo the grievance done to the AFC and CN Sharma (if that is so) assuming that the law prevents them from ensuring the rearrangement of party seats. The law that disallows GECOM from changing the election results and the internal, independent functions of the Gang of Two must not be confused.
A simple example will suffice. If the constitution of Guyana prevents any police officer, including the Commissioner of Police himself, from entering on the lawns of the President's residence, then the law is the law. Now suppose the law disallows the police from giving the President the briefcase that contains the control panel to pull the trigger for a nuclear strike but the police have done just that. The police cannot say that they will tell the nation if they gave the device to the President once they get permission to go into the residence of the Head of State to see if the item is there.
The point is, did they make a mistake in handing over the stuff to the President?
This is the identical scenario with the AFC/CN Sharma imbroglio. I have to choose my words carefully because there may not be a basis for any fuss at all. GECOM may not have a volcano coming its way because for all you know the Region Ten votes may have been properly assigned.
The AFC descended into mathematical confusion and couldn't read the statistics properly. The PNC is the only party that has proclaimed that its mathematical probe found a seat waiting for CN Sharma. For all you know, Mr. Haslyn Parris, the source from which the CN Sharma seat emerged, may have missed out on something while doing his statistical investigation.
Sadly, controversies that divide this nation continue to do so because the society cannot muster the courage to be honest with itself. The Gang of Two may have chosen the road of silence because it feels admission may bring on lawsuits against GECOM. But the implications of any lawsuit could never be more important than giving justice to a country. Justice is the foundation upon which life rests.