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Editor: Tusika Martin News Hotline: 231-8063 Editorial: 231-0544 223-7230,223-7231,231-0544, 225-7761 Marketing: 231-8064 Accounts: 225-6707 Mailing address: Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, marketing@guyanatimesgy.com The lessons of Sri Lanka

The President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled his country after his house was overrun by waves of Sri Lankans who, since March, had been protesting the collapse of the economy under his and his family’s rule for almost two decades, has finally resigned. He had flown on a military jet to the Maldives, and then on a commercial flight to Singapore. Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was on Friday sworn in to act as President, and declared a nationwide state of emergency as he manoeuvred for Parliament to elect a new President.

Like Guyana, Sri Lanka is a bicommunal society that exemplifies the depth and persistence of ethnic divisions. There, the majority, 75% mostly Buddhist Sinhalese, had been joined by Indian Hindu Tamils from across the straits in India over a thousand years ago, and, more recently, more Hindu and Muslim Tamils during the British colonial era. Also, like Guyana, the politics became ethnicised at independence (1947), as they adopted democratic parliamentary governance, with the two groups voting for different parties. By 1983, feeling discriminated against and oppressed, the “Tamil Tigers (LTTE) of the Tamils, concentrated in the north and east of the island republic, launched a guerrilla war to secede. It was not until 2009, when Gotabaya was Defence Chief under his brother Mahinda’s Presidency, that he brutally ended the war. At least 40,000 Tamil citizens were killed during that operation, and overall, over 100,000 were killed.

Under the cloak of Sinhalese nationalism, stoked by Buddhist monks who extolled the “victors”, the Rajapaksa brothers nepotistically brought other family members into the Government, which became increasingly despotic and corrupt as they excluded Tamil citizens. Their rule also became quite idiosyncratic, as decision-making was concentrated within their family circle and close coterie. What Sri Lanka demonstrated is how easy an economy integrated into a globalised world can implode after poor policy choices.

Over the past decade, the Sri Lankan Government borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders to fund infrastructure for public services. Two examples were the Hambantota Port and the Mattala Rajapaksa Airport – constructed with loans from China at a cost of over $2 billion. They became white elephants, since they had almost zero utility. They could not service foreign debts of US$51 billion, and suspended debt payments, which ruined their credit rating and pushed them into the arms of the IMF. Simultaneously, their economy was hit by external and internal shocks from which it never recovered, and which subsequent policy decisions exacerbated. To please the ecologically woke foreign constituency, they banned chemical fertilisers, which immediately decimated farmers' harvests, reducing exports and foreign exchange. They had to import rice for the first time.

Facing a massive deficit, Rajapaksa slashed taxes in a doomed attempt to stimulate the economy. But the move backfired, instead hitting Government revenue. That prompted rating agencies to downgrade Sri Lanka to near default levels, meaning the country lost access to overseas financial markets even as foreign direct investments plunged. Sri Lanka then had to fall back on its foreign exchange reserves to pay off Government debt, shrinking its reserves. This impacted imports of fuel and other essentials, which sent prices soaring. Topping all that, the Government, in March, floated the Sri Lankan rupee, which plunged against the US dollar, making things worse for ordinary Sri Lankans, as inflation soared to double digits, reaching 54% last month.

The country's foreign exchange reserves plummeted to record lows, with dollars running out to pay for essential imports, including food, medicine and fuel -- leaving millions unable to feed their families, fuel their cars, or access basic medicine. COVID-19 was the final blow, as it reduced tourists, and even remittances, when the world shut down. These drove the largely peaceful protests, until their storming of the President’s home. Tackling the balance-of-payment crisis would require structural reforms to address constraints to domestic and foreign direct investments, industrial competitiveness and exports. It is doubtful that the interim Government which is to be formed can deal with all these challenges.

Forewarned is hopefully forearmed for our leaders.

President Dr Irfaan Ali sharing a photo with a female team during the Guyana Police Force's Inter-Division/Inter Agency “Cook Up Competition” on Saturday at the Police Officers’ Mess compound at Eve Leary. Also in photo are Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn

and Police Commissioner (ag) Clifton Hicken (OP photo)

GECOM must not waste time!

Dear Editor,

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) must not waste time deliberating over trivial matters designed to procrastinate the delivery of the institution’s mandate. It is opportune for the Commission, as a collective, to recognise the deliberate, sinister, and abusive approach by the Opposition Commissioners to slow down or immobilise any rational delivery by the institution.

Our nation must stand together strongly and condemn the abrogation of purpose by these cabal Commissioners. Their clandestine and characteristically partisan actions fly in the face of their appointment and accommodation which, luckily, the scripters of the Constitution may have contemplated. Consequently, objectivity at the Commission level cannot be held to ransom, and this is ensured by the odd-number formula preserving the rights to rational decision-making.

GECOM therefore must continue its purposeful forward-thrust, and put all systems in place for the holding of Local Government Elections (LGEs).

At the last meeting of the Commission, GECOM Chairperson Madam Claudette Singh threw out the APNU/PNC-WPA second trivial and procrastination-laden motion. Another motion that failed to disguise its clear intent and design to realise stalling of the holding of the delayed LGEs. One and all must applaud the decisive position taken by Chairwoman Madam Claudette Singh, who perhaps by now has become extremely frustrated and fed up with the obvious undercurrents as those commissioners continue to call for a review of the 2020 polls.

It is of note that the GECOM Chairwoman had addressed a previous motion on the issue, and in her written decision against any internal review of the 2020 Elections, provided acceptable justification. Further, there have been judicial decisions in centrally-related matters and the differentiation between a review of GECOM’s approved procedures in effectively conducting free and fair elections compared to investigations into what transpired during the glaringly fraudulent actions of key elections officials.

Aside from the foregoing, the APNU/AFC Commissioners are well aware of the likely futility of such exercise, given that the former CEO Keith Lowenfield failed to submit the relevant reports, and many of the institution’s computers were wiped clean of related data. As one would suspect, had it not been for the protectors of democracy, who were certainly willing to protect the cast ballots with their lives, our country might have had to rely on the conflicting falsities and indictable fictitiously-created declarations.

The absolute irrationality resonating from the Vincent Alexander-led clan informs an inconsistent and baseless comparison concerning other recent elections at which the then APNU/AFC Government was widely defeated. One must therefore ask obvious questions concerning the reasons why there was no review of the 2016 and 2018 Local Government Elections.

Further, there could be no pretense about the nation’s perception regarding the role of the APNU/ AFC Government in ensuring that the PPPC Election Petition against the 2015 Elections results was never heard. It is therefore reasonable to assert that the likes of Vincent Alexander and his clan would have also had many reasons to request internal reviews. So why was there no request for review for the clan on this occasion?

Further, evidence of significant difficulties experienced by the Auditor General in his attempt to Audit GECOM was met with a defiant lack of cooperation from officials of the GECOM Secretariat. There is also public evidence indicating that GECOM’s financial statements were not audited since 2011, but the nation has not heard a word concerning reviews in the heat of the wide stakeholders’ outcry.

It is clear that from 2015 onwards, GECOM staff and the entire operation at GECOM were taken over by a notorious cabal. It is not by chance that several senior members of the GECOM Secretariat who participated in the 2020 elections are facing fraud charges in the courts. It is also factual that several others ran away from GECOM because of the consequences they anticipated would follow.

The GECOM Chairperson is trying her best to improve things at the Commission. However, the harsh reality is that the electoral system must be strengthened by putting measures in place to ensure no more rigged elections. The good news is that the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the March 2020 General and Regional Elections are currently being implemented. In addition, genuine efforts are in place for the holding of LGEs, although the Opposition Commissioners at GECOM are deliberately trying to come up with delaying tactics and are also hell-bent on seeking to postpone the elections.

There is no time for any review before LGEs, take it to the courts!