Posted March 6th. 2011 - Source Guyana Chronicle

By Rickey Singh

NEW ERA IN GUYANA POLL POLITICS

-choice of ex-army commandant as PNCR's presidential hopeful

GUYANA'S MAJOR opposition parliamentary party, the People's National Congress Reform (PNCR), last weekend broke new ground in moving away from a pattern of rigged internal elections to declare its choice, by free and fair voting, of a Presidential candidate for the country's new general elections, expected in August. The winner, to emerge from a field of five nominees who have been engaged over the past six months in US-style primary elections campaigning, is a 65-year-old retired Brigadier of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) -- David Granger.

He snatched victory by fifteen (15) votes from his main challenger, Carl Greenidge, an economist and former Finance Minister in the PNCR administration of the late President Desmond Hoyte.

Armed with the coveted prize as presidential candidate, Granger, who has long shown special interest in matters of national security and foreign affairs, will now lead the PNCR slate of candidates at the coming national poll for the 65-member parliament.

But Granger's victory was hardly a ringing endorsement with his share of 279 votes to Greenidge's 264, and considering that of 666 ballots cast from a register of 827 eligible electors, it meant that 387 votes went against him.

Yet, Granger's victory was a break with a sustained pattern of controversial internal and national elections in the life of the 55-year-old PNC, whose founder was the late President Forbes Burnham.

His dictatorial rule, under the doctrine of 'party paramountcy', that included politicising of the army and police are all part of Guyana's post-independence political history. Granger himself would be quite familiar with that political culture and subsequent developments.

It was partly the challenge to remove the burden of marketing itself as a party committed to free and fair elections -- having maintained itself in power for almost a quarter-century on the basis of successively rigged parliamentary elections -- that influenced new initiatives to ensure a supervised electoral process to choose a presidential candidate.

Painful backdrop

That development at the weekend occurred against a painful backdrop for even some known party stalwarts who became increasingly concerned over its future under current leader, Robert Corbin.

A 60-year-old lawyer, Corbin, who was elected leader in 2002, following the death of Desmond Hoyte, had twice failed to lead the PNCR to victory at the last two general elections.

Both elections -- the last being in August 2006 -- were decisively won by the incumbent People’s Progressive Party (PPP) under the leadership of President Bharrat Jagdeo, who is currently preparing to leave office once the coming elections are over.

Granger was grateful to acknowledge Corbin's idea of introducing the concept of primary elections campaigning. He would also be conscious of being perceived as 'Corbin's favoured presidential choice. It is a perception that could well prove a burden for the coming elections.

Of further significance is that while Granger will be campaigning as the PNCR's presidential hopeful, Corbin remains leader of the PNCR, a position from which he continues to exercise decisive influence.

The anxiety revealed by Granger to have a woman as his likely running mate, and without betraying any interest in Carl Greenidge, who came so near to defeating him, could also prove disadvantageous.

After all, the PNCR, its leader Corbin and presidential candidate Granger are all aware that the incumbent PPP, which has been holding the reins of State power since October I992, is waiting to roll out what it is projecting as an impressive record of social and economic achievements that even its more strident opponents and critics cannot objectively ignore.

PPP's challenge

However, since President Jagdeo is constitutionally debarred from seeking more than two consecutive terms as Head of State, the PPP must first also come to terms with its own challenge to democratically determine -- perhaps not later than the end of April -- who secures the prize of presidential candidate.

One of the oldest of Caribbean parties, founded some sixty (60) years ago, the PPP has never in its history of participation in parliamentary politics, had any problem in choosing who leads it into a general election. Such was the dominant influence of its patriarch, Cheddi Jagan, and matriarch, Janet Jagan.

With the Jagans gone to the great beyond, Jagdeo, then Finance Minister, had succeeded to the presidency when illness forced the resignation of Janet Jagan as President.

Jagdeo must now participate in a democratic process to identify potential presidential candidates, whose eligibility currently form part of discussions to further involve the party's executive council for recommendations to be placed before the decisive central committee and engagement with constituent groups. Issues being reportedly discussed at present include the process itself to determine secret balloting.

Jagdeo’s final bell

Currently, some six names have been identified as potential presidential nominees who would need to have ample opportunity to launch their respective campaign.

Among them are the party's General Secretary, Donald Ramotar; Speaker of the House, Ralph Ramkarran; Moses Nagamootoo, a former Information Minister; Gail Teixeira, well-known adviser to President Jagdeo; Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and, just last week, the name of Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud (youngest of the lot at 37) surfaced in the local media.

At the August 2006 general elections, the PPP had retained power for a fourth consecutive term with 36 of the 65 parliamentary seats, secured with 54.06 per cent of the popular votes.

The PNCR had obtained its 22 seats with 34 per cent of valid ballots cast, while the minority and then one-year-old Alliance for Change (AFC), whose leadership structure is comprised of former dissenting parliamentarians of the PPP and PNCR, got five seats, with 8.04 per cent of votes. When the election bell is rung for the last time by outgoing President Jagdeo, it would be quite a significantly new field of key political players battling to lead Guyana at a time of very sweeping political and economic challenges--worldwide, not just within CARICOM.

Posted February 27th. 2011 - Source Guyana Chronicle

By Rickey Singh

End of 'BBC Caribbean' is new challenge for region

Analysis

IN THE event they did not side-step the issue, we should learn from the expected communique on the inter-sessional meeting that concluded last evening whether CARICOM governments are disposed to being involved in initiatives to meet a new regional communications challenge, as a consequence of the coming closure of the BBC Caribbean Service.

Pan-Caribbean broadcast journalism is now set to suffer a major blow when the BBC Caribbean Service, which has been providing a most valuable package of news and views to this region for almost three decades, shuts down from March 25.

The BBC has explained in a press statement that closure of its Caribbean Service was part of its response to a cut to its ‘grant-aid funding’ from the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) that led to a restructure of its World Service programmes.

It so happens, according to the official explanation, that ‘BBC Caribbean’ has fallen victim to budgetary cuts that affect the World Service programmes in places like Albania, Macedonia and Serbia, as well as Portuguese-speaking programmes in Africa.

Coincidentally, this development will also be occurring at a time when there continues to be a decline in Britain's interest and influence in the Caribbean.

For this region, closure of the BBC Caribbean Service is sad news. The Caribbean Community will be the poorer for independent and reliable information, as it is yet to recover from loss of the range and quality professional wire and radio news coverage that were regular features of a once vigorous Caribbean News Agency (CANA).

As we came to know it, CANA ceased to exist some ten years ago. It currently offers, against the odds, a scaled-down news flow via the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), which remains hobbled for want of proper funding arrangements, but still benefits from the commitment of a comparatively small band of professional journalists.

Going of CANA

While CANA was largely maintained, financially, with funding from UNESCO and a German foundation, the BBC Caribbean Service was to spread its wings as a project of the BBC World Service.

Now that the new Conservative/Liberal government in London has decided to cut grant-aid that affects even programmes of the BBC -- that towering international symbol of a once glorious British empire -- this region will be deprived of the very informative news, current affairs and other programmes, including an Online component offered by BBC Caribbean, from March 25.

Given the recognised need for a greater public information flow, consistent with our aspirations to establish a seamless regional economy supported with enlightened functional cooperation, the impending closure of the BBC Caribbean Service is expected to be a discussion topic at the CARICOM leaders Inter-Sessional Meeting, which began Friday in Grenada.

Both host Prime Minister of the just-concluded Inter-Sessional Meeting in Grenada, and current CARICOM chairman, Tillman Thomas, and his Barbadian counterpart, Fruendal Stuart, who chairs the Community's Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on the CSME, are on record as expressing their interest for greater and more effective communication to the people of the region.

Well, since other CARICOM leaders, among them the President of Guyana and Prime Ministers of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, should have no difficulty agreeing with such a perspective, question is: How to give tangible practical expressions to this felt need for "greater and more effective communication" with the people of the region, as distinct from a domestic orientation?

Today, there is no longer a functioning CARICOM Council of Information Ministers, or any showing of serious interest by governments to exercise creative initiatives to support, without strings, the CMC in order to be more enterprising in coverage of regional events and developments.

Today's challenge

Nevertheless, it would be good to learn that the CARICOM leaders do have a concern in at least seeking to ascertain how best this region could benefit from the talents and resources, originally located in CANA, and now to be available with next month's closure of the BBC Caribbean Service, where a small but very dedicated team of broadcasters and technicians have been providing the varied programmes of the BBC Caribbean Service.

Likewise, the decision-makers of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) and One Caribbean Media (OCM) should also be forthcoming with ideas on the pooling of talents and resources to help in filling a growing void in sustained professional pan-Caribbean coverage of news and views in the interest of an informed regional public as efforts continue to scale hurdles to make a lived reality of the ideal of ‘One Community for One People’.

In contrast to the authenticity that the word ‘Caribbean’ has meant in the acronym of CANA and BBC Caribbean, media enterprises in the region that market themselves as being Caribbean-oriented have quite a challenge today with the coming closure of the BBC Caribbean Service.

For now, let the head of the BBC Caribbean Service, the veteran Trinidad-born journalist, Debbie Ransome, have the last word:

"Given what we know BBC Caribbean means for providing pan-Caribbean coverage for a strong radio audience, plus the online links it provides between the Caribbean and its Diaspora, and the amount of goodwill it brought for the BBC from a loyal audience, clearly a void will be left..."

So, who will bell the proverbial cat among governments and the more enterprising entrepreneurs of the private sector to inspire interest in a mini version of a media enterprise that can fill the void left by what CANA used to be, and now made wider by the closure of the BBC Caribbean Service?

I guess it would be those with the imagination and commitment to encourage, as a matter of necessity, having an informed Caribbean public to better help governments, private sector and civil society in general to achieve and sustain defined national/regional goals.

If, warts and all, there are leaders in the public and private sectors yet to be sensitised to what it means for this region to suffer the loss of the pan-Caribbean communication services of first the Montserrat-based 'Radio Antilles', then CANA Radio and its original wire service, and now BBC Caribbean, then the problems to ensure availability of a regular and credible pan-Caribbean flow of information, news and views may be quite great indeed.

Posted February 20th. 2011 - Source Guyana Chronicle

By Rickey Singh

'Free' health care challenge in CARICOM

-sparked by new Barbados policy on non-nationals

BARBADOS has begun implementation of a new Health Care Act that restricts access to cost-free drugs/medical care to non-nationals who have neither Barbadian citizenship nor permanent residency status. And it has come as a reminder why CARICOM governments need to collectively speedily move towards a common strategy for shared medical benefits by all nationals of member states that have signed on to the Community's Single Market and Economy (CSME) project.

In the current Barbados scenario, unless proof of citizenship or permanent residency status could be established when seeking medical care, then non-nationals could be denied health benefits previously freely accessed.

Even, that is, they hold valid work permits, have a Barbados ID card, pay income tax, and whose national passport carries the official stamp as an ‘immigrant’.

From inquires made of some governments this past week, including Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, there are concerns about the application of the new Barbados Health Care law that would require clarifications.

At the time of writing, I was unsuccessful in reaching the Chief Medical Officer of Trinidad and Tobago -- a CARICOM state with a significant presence of nationals from other Community states -- to ascertain official policy in relation to non-nationals accessing cost-free medical care that citizens may secure as of right.

It has been noted that implementation of the Barbados health care legislation, has come at a time when CARICOM is in the process of seeking to establish appropriate mechanisms consistent with arrangements for the CSME.

These arrangements, which would facilitate more than the estimated nine categories of skilled nationals to have freedom to live and work in any of the participating CSME member states, relate to outstanding issues like contingent rights and creation of a regional health insurance scheme that's applicable across the region.

Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas of St. Kitts and Nevis, who has lead responsibility among CARICOM Heads of Government for Health (including HIV/AIDS) and Human Resource Development, is of the view that the Community needs to prioritise arrangements for "an enlightened common approach" in the provision of health care for ALL nationals of the Community.

As current chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, Dr. Douglas observed -- as did his Vincentian counterpart, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, in an earlier interview -- that the OECS sub-region had already made "significant strides" towards the evolution of a common health-care programme for Community nationals, including non-citizens who live and work there.

Both Prime Ministers were of the view that access to health care for CARICOM nationals should be discussed at the coming Inter-Sessional Meeting in Grenada later this week.

Not only in relation to common health care benefits, but also bearing in mind the wide-ranging recommendations for action outlined in the report from the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development (that was headed by Sir George Alleyne), former PAHO Director and current Chancellor of the University of the West Indies.

‘Broader goals’

Understandably, as noted by Guyana's Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, there was "general understanding" that a member state of the Community "is free to pursue policies and programmes it considers to be in its national interest" while, at the same time, "we can hope for consistency in fulfilling the broader goals of the regional integration movement…"

So far as Guyana is concerned, said Dr Ramsammy, the government was "fully committed" to honouring its obligations in providing cost-free access to approved drugs and basic medical care to "all of our citizens, as well as nationals of CARICOM who either live and work here, as long as they deal with the state sector health system ... Once they seek medical attention from the private sector, they have to bear whatever the costs may be…"

The Guyanese Health Minister said the government was proud of its health care programmes, and would continue the tradition of facilitating free access to CARICOM nationals for prescribed drugs and attention as recommended to be obtained through the public health system.

In Jamaica, as explained by its Health Ministry, no one, national or non-national, would be denied access to urgent medical attention, but a payment arrangement is normally discussed for non-nationals to make. If it is found that they cannot afford it, the cost is generally waived.

The Jamaica government is also keen on having a "common approach" by CARICOM for nationals to access cost-free drugs/medical care. It also shares the concern for progress to be hastened in CSME-readiness arrangements that include issues such as contingent rights and the creation of a regional health insurance mechanism to benefit nationals across the Community.

Barbadian scenario

In the current Barbados scenario, there are reports of many non-nationals with legal status (though without citizenship or permanent residency), as well as employees in the public health sector, yet to be fully sensitised to the implications of the new Health Care Act in relation to access to cost-free medication.

Consequently, there have been some unfortunate incidents of CARICOM nationals being subjected to embarrassing rejections when seeking medical benefits at State-run polyclinics at which they had become accustomed to receiving such care.

One such case was recently brought to public attention, with the Barbados 'Weekend Nation’ reporting, under the headline ‘No citizen, so no care’, about the shocking experience of a 75-year-old St. Lucia-born national when she turned up at a State-operated polyclinic for customary medical care.

The elderly woman, who has been living in Barbados for the past 55 years, was denied the care she needed because she could not then produce proof that she was either a citizen or has permanent residency status.

On that same day, according to the 'Nation' report, some eleven other non-Barbadian CARICOM nationals were also denied access to medical care, although they HAVE permanent residency.

Health Minister Donville Inniss was to subsequently explain that he had "no knowledge" that polyclinics were turning away people with permanent residency seeking health care.

Well, part of the problem may reside in the government's failure, to date, to have preceded its implementation of the new healthcare legislation with a public education campaign on its relevant provisions, in particular those applicable to immigrants -- from CARICOM or else -- who have neither Barbadian citizenship nor permanent residency.

We await the outcome of this week's two-day Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM leaders that begins on Thursday to learn what new plans they have for common approaches on healthcare programmes, consistent with CSME-readiness arrangements.

In particular, how Community nationals with legal status, and who are paying taxes, could be facilitated to also access free medical care in the CARICOM jurisdictions where they currently live.