GUYANA
HISTORY NOTEBOOK
Compiled by Odeen Ishmael
PNC AGAIN TWISTS FACTS
The PNC, in its efforts
to cover up its reactionary stand before and during the last Constitutional
Talks in London, has again resorted to distortion.
In the New Nation of Saturday, July 16, the PNC claimed that the PPP had decided
not to press for Cabinet status while in London "because it would mean
that the Party would have the responsibility of framing the election year budget
through a Finance Minister who was a member of the Party." It is unnecessary
to reply to such a childish thought. It goes on also to say that the PNC leadership
fought for Cabinet status and that the PPP has now switched back to PNC's leadership.
What are the facts?
It was the PPP which demanded Cabinet status immediately, and it was Dr. Jagan
who referred to talks he had with the former Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Mr. Lennox Boyd, concerning Cabinet status. Readers will remember that Dr. Jagan
branded the British Government refusal to grant Cabinet status now as a breach
of faith.
The PNC should quote not a small portion of the minutes which they evidently
did concerning ?the Premier's presiding over the Executive Council as a rule
rather than the exception." They should quote arguments used by Dr. Jagan
and his colleagues.
What the Colonial Office offered was not Cabinet status at all, and the PNC
knows this. Cabinet status was refused and the British Government offered to
designate the leader of the Majority Party as Premier and to appoint a member
of his group as Minister of Finance. However, the Premier would preside only
when the Governor did not FEEL like attending Executive Council meetings. In
the absence of the Governor, the Officer Administering the Government (OAG)
would have the right to preside and the Premier would only be allowed to chair
Executive Council meetings if the OAG did not.
This is not Cabinet status. Cabinet status gives the right to the Prime Minister
to preside as a rule and also makes Official Members merely advisers and not
full members of the Executive Council.
Finance
What is the position with
regard to the Financial Secretary, and the Minister of Finance? The PPP demanded
that the Financial Secretary should withdraw from the Executive Council. The
PPP maintains that it would be ludicrous to have in the Executive Council the
Financial Secretary provided for by Orders in Council as a member of the Executive
Council while the Minister would be in the Executive Council merely nominated
by the Governor as all Ministers are.
The PNC knows that this is not Cabinet status and what they say they are demanding,
and they are not capable of demanding anything, was merely the shadow of power
and not real power. It will be obstructive to quote the demands of the British
Guiana delegation at the Constitutional Conference. To say, as the report had
it, that there were demands by the whole delegation is to hide the reactionary
attitude of the PNC and to be charitable to them:
(i) the Governor should forthwith cease to preside over the Executive Council,
his place being taken by the Premier;
(ii) the Financial Secretary should forthwith leave the Executive Council, his
place being taken by an elected Minister; and
(iii) the Chief Secretary and the Attorney General should attend meetings of
the Executive Council only as advisers.
It was because these demands were not agreed to, because the PPP was interested
in power and not a mere shadow, that it rejected what was offered by the British
Government.
The PNC, in the article referred to, said that the PPP’s refusal exposed
the existence of supporters of Crown Colony Government in the PPP. Readers will
remember that it was the PNC, aided and abetted by the daily press, which campaigned
against Independence Now. Independence is the only alternative to colonialism.
The PPP is interested infighting colonialism.
The PPP does not feel that British Guiana should advance to independence by
stages and it was mainly because of Burnham's and Kendall's reactionary stand
in refusing to fight for Independence Now that the Colonial Office chose this
as an opportunity to delay our march towards this goal.
And it was mainly because of the persistence of the PPP that the delegation
was able to wring from the British Government what may be regarded as a timetable
for Independence.
Had the British Government been forced to accept Independence by 1961 they would
have had no alternative but to grant Cabinet status immediately. As it was,
they argued that to give Cabinet status would be to anticipate the Order in
Council which would have to be passed in a year's time. This was the argument
of the United Kingdom delegation and this argument had some force in view of
the limited constitutional advance which the PNC strove for.
The PNC's miserable attempt to cloak its betrayal behind the PPP's courageous
and forthright
struggle is thus exposed to light of day.