Dear Editor,
The political elite running the PPP and PNC do not make decisions in the interest of their constituencies, party and the nation. Decisions are made from very flawed praxes. Decisions are made from self-interest first and foremost. They are incompetent and sometimes intellectually challenged. When decisions are made within this framework, you invariably get flawed policy-making and decision-making. Why is it necessary to have term limits and dynamic internal democracy and accountability that punishes incompetence, replaces square pegs and infuses a party with new, talented and competent blood? So that certain people are not given decades to destroy not just the party but the nation with their recurring shortcomings, dismal leadership, mismanagement and incompetence. When the executives of the PNC and PPP include these people and where they command the majorities in the executives, they are allowed to retain power and have a tragic effect on the future of a nation.
How in heaven’s name could men who have proven their worthlessness as leaders deliver this country? While we can blame them for creating the cult of personality in order to hold onto power, the greatest blame for the continuation of this rests with the members of both parties.
The PPP and PNC create functional superiority. What this means is that a person close to the leadership who is clearly unqualified and unfit for a position of power gets a position by virtue of his connection to the cabal in charge. That person then uses the office to assert functional superiority, claiming that because he/she is a minister or a party executive member, the rank and file membership must accept him/her and his/her decisions.
It would be fine if this nonsense stopped within the walls of the party. However, it doesn’t. The PNC and PPP have incredible power. They shape this country every day whether in the executive or in the legislature, whether by spending billions of taxpayers‘ money or by passing laws. When unfit individuals are forced onto the nation on the basis of functional superiority, it cripples the nation. When a maximum leader gives an incompetent a critical portfolio and that person is obviously out of his depth, we get destruction of the industry, economic pitfalls, jobs in jeopardy and lost funds chasing wasteful white elephant projects. The same poor people who are battered and lose their jobs are then required to pay more for these stark failures. In any normal democracy that incompetent would be fired and probably investigated. In Guyana, that incompetent gets promoted to larger and more powerful portfolios.
The decision-making from the leadership of the PPP and PNC is rooted in self-interest, intellectual arrogance, group think and delusions of power and grandeur. Every leader since Burnham has made decisions to cement and enlarge his/her power. This has degraded the country and sent it backwards. There is no thinking of the future implications of one’s misconduct. The PNC leadership never considered the painful consequences of leaving that Burnham constitution intact because it wanted it unchanged if it ever regained power. Now, the PPP is facing a future of declining plurality until it will some time in the next few elections lose power. The current PPP is not thinking of constitutional reform to prevent abuse of power using the constitution. It is thinking of getting even more power so it will not change the constitution until, like the PNC, it loses power.
Indians and Africans are 70% of the population, who predominantly vote race for the PPP and PNC/APNU. The choice is clear to Indians and Africans in this country – they should change their party or change their vote. They cannot have the country and life they want with this party structure in the PPP and PNC/APNU.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
