An Alliance For Change (AFC) Region Four councillor has expressed concern about how the party is being managed contending that there is no transparency or democratic system in place to allow members an opportunity to contribute to the debate and its development.
Speaking with the media at his place of business at Foreman’s Electrical Shoe Shop on Bentinck Street yesterday, the regional councillor Michael Carrington said that since the last general and regional elections at which the AFC won a number of seats in the National Assembly and on Regional Democratic Councils, the party has failed its membership and the Guyanese people and has lost a great opportunity in establishing itself.
He alleged too that he was verbally abused by the party’s Chairman, Raphael Trotman, who while admitting to Stabroek News that the two exchanged some words, denied using indecent language during an exchange they had some time last year.
Carrington feels that the party could have done better at the elections and even after had the necessary management skills which the party had access to been used. He said that even though there are thousands of members on paper in the AFC they are no longer supportive of it. He based this assessment on conversations he has had on a regular basis with them.
Saying that some major ideas he put forward were not considered, he said that in the elections campaign he made a suggestion which was turned down by the AFC but a similar idea implemented by the PPP/C proved effective. One of his ideas included more work among the Guyanese population of East Indian origin since he felt that section of the Guyanese population would have been a harder constituency to penetrate.
Carrington said that he was also upset that after the elections there was no transparency in the selection of representative of the AFC for the five parliamentary seats. He and others, he said, supported Gaumatie Singh and youth representative Trevor Williams but AFC Vice Chairman Sheila Holder felt that Williams was too young and lacked experience.
Contending that the party’s current leadership does not have the mandate from the general membership itself, he said that the party has never had elections for leadership since it came into being but that its current leaders were “self-elected”. The party, he said, has been managed by a steering committee and this situation has not changed. He expects that this would change when the party holds its first congress, “hopefully next month.”
The party was launched on October 29, 2005, ten months before the elections were held.
Carrington said that he had suggested that the party hold a congress before the last general and regional elections to obtain the mandate from the membership but he was not sure why the meeting did not take place. There “seemed to be some type of fear,” he said.
He said he was upset, too, because of what he felt was the behaviour of the party’s Chairman Trotman, who he said used indecent language in addressing him on suggestions he had made for keeping the party active and for ensuring work is done among the regional constituencies.
He said that his idea for the establishment of a fund to be used exclusively by AFC councillors to carry out work in the region they represented was not pursued.
In a letter to the AFC leaders, he suggested the creation of a Regional Councillors Fund since he noted after attending statutory meetings that the majority of projects proposed and approved by the RDC fall through because of a lack of government funding. He also suggested that regional councillors also be paid a stipend in the same manner as MPs because of the volume of work they do in the execution of their duties.
He said that a response from the AFC Vice Chairman Holder to his suggestions took him by surprise as he could not understand how the proposals meant to broaden transparency and accountability could incite insecurities.
He added that some of his suggestions were “a way to keep the executive concentrating on executive matters while at the same time trying to keep members on the sidelines interested in the AFC programme.”
Asked to comment on the issues raised, Trotman said that he was surprised that Carrington took his concerns to the press since the suggestions that were made were among many that have been put forward by other party members, both locally and internationally.
He said that some of the ideas could not be acted on since decisions would have to come from the general membership and some proposals would have to be endorsed by the general membership.
He said that it was true that the party was being guided by a steering committee as the necessity of moving ahead to take part in the general elections held in August last year meant the party could not hold a congress.
The AFC, he said, was at present working towards hosting its first national congress either next month before the Cricket World Cup 2007 Super Eight matches to be held in Guyana or after. At that congress, he said that the leaders of the party would be elected based on guidelines proposed and accepted by the party’s membership.
Stating that he had received reports of many of Carrington’s activities sullying the party’s name, Trotman said that, “we would not allow anyone to derail the party’s programme”. He was aware, he said, that political forces were at work to destroy the AFC and hoped that Carrington was not a victim of such forces.
On the 35-member Region 4 council, the PNCR-1G has 16 seats, the PPP/C has 15 seats, the AFC has three seats and the Justice for All Party – 1.
Last year, the AFC also had an acrimonious parting with Singh who said she was promised one of the parliamentary seats.