The Paradox of Plenty: Why Guyana’s Local Content Law Needs a Reality Check
In October 2022, the Guyana Business Journal (GBJ) challenged a panel of experts to deliberate on how Guyana could maximize local capture from its oil and gas sector. The question is pregnant with possibilities. However, Guyana, like other developing countries before it, assumes that a local content law is the secret sauce. Therefore, the discourse […]
The Masses at the Gate: What’s Behind the People’s Movement in Guyana
For decades Guyana abandoned the principles of a merit-based society, opting instead for a system of political patronage. The country’s private sector followed in the shadows of the ruling political elites, elevating patronage and nepotism above merit and competence. Though One People, One Nation, One Destiny, the probability of success on the merits eluded generations of […]
Walking on Eggshells: Prado Ville -Prosecuting the Top Brass of the Previous Government
Flashback It was the late 1990s and a near-sighted government, believing all it needed to govern was a mandate at the polls, was brought to its knees. Tear smoke filled the streets of downtown Georgetown as the government cracked down on dissenters, seeking to break the back of a resistance movement that had paralyzed the […]
Parked in a Legitimacy Gap: Why The Georgetown Parking Meters Controversy is a Political Millstone
The municipality, except for a renegade Deputy Mayor, says the introduction of parking meters in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city, is a necessary leap into modernization. The Private sector, citizens, and activists call the move inhumane, callous, corrupt and a blight on a struggling economy. This gap between what the City thinks of the initiative and […]
Pandora’s Box: Requesting New List of GECOM Nominees A Dangerous Precedent
When Guyana’s President David Granger requested a second list of nominees for Chairman of the country’s Elections Commission (GECOM) from the Leader of the Opposition, he extended an olive branch and created a dangerous precedent. The submission of a list of nominees is a one-shot deal. The Constitution does not provide for the submission of […]
Fit and Proper: An Unnecessary Fight
When a moment in time presents an opportunity for a historian to leave foot prints in the sand, you expect him to seize the moment. The rejection of the list of nominees for Chairman of Guyana’s Elections Commission (GECOM), presented such an opportunity to President David Granger and he demurred. Mr. Granger traded a legacy-making […]
Dancing on Black Ice Part II: The Reply to Nandlall on the GECOM Brouhaha
Grown accustomed to a nuanced application of legal principles from Guyana’s former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, I was disappointed by his response to my article Dancing on Black Ice: That Legal Threat Over a Nonjusticiable Constitutional Provision. Though his article, The President is Not Above the Law was published as a response, the former AG resorts to sweeping […]
Dancing on Black Ice: That Legal Threat Over a Nonjusticiable Constitutional Provision
It is hard to think of a more flawed interpretation of an expressed constitutional provision than what we are currently witnessing in the feud over the selection of a Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Current President David Granger offers a baffling interpretation of the Constitution and former President Bharrat Jagdeo treats us to […]