Guyanese democracy under threat from the ‘war on drugs’

The Guyanese Home Affairs minister Clement Rothee has proposed a new law banning those involved in drug trafficking from standing in regional or national elections. 

Guyanese society feels under pressure from the impact of the trade in cocaine and the minister has said that he thinks it is something that most “people in the country will go along with”.

It is unclear how it is established that an individual is involved in the drugs trade, Clement Rothee refused to be pushed by journalists into responding to this point, saying that any discussion would be “futuristic”.

It would be quite reasonable for somebody convicted of a host of serious crimes to be barred from standing for elected office, especially those connected with organised crime. If the banning was not a result of a conviction in court then it would raise all sorts of issues around the health of Guyanese democracy. The banning of a rival from standing based upon a spurious allegation of involvement with the drugs trade could prove to be a very effective tool for an incumbent government willing to bend the rules to stay in power.

Clement Rothee’s Peoples Progressive Party has been in power since 1992 and it in that time it hasn’t been free of scandal. In 2004 one of Clement Rothee’s predecessors in the post of Home Affairs minister, Ronald Gajraj was accused of running ‘phantom death squads’ that killed close to four hundred people. The man who made the allegations was then himself assassinated, leading to further allegations of corruption and a cover up.

Clement Rothee has been linked by some commentators to the torture by the Police of a teenage boy, set on fire whilst in custody. He has also been refused a visa for the USA, although the reasons remain unclear. 

Personally I find it hard not to view this bill as an attempt to manipulate the democratic process using the ‘war on drugs’ as an excuse to block participation. This is in the 'best' tradition of international drug control, where lip service is paid to public safety or public health whilst personal political or bureaucratic power is gained through being a good ‘drug war warrior’.