APNU parliamentarian Joseph Harmon yesterday said the government’s pulling out of the USAID-funded $300 million project aimed at educating Guyanese on the local government election exposes the ruling party as being anti-working class.
And AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan came out swinging at the PPP government for rejecting the project, stating that the “neurotic, paranoid leaders” in the party who want to see its closure do not want the Guyanese public’s education in democracy and civic participation.
“I am minded to repeat that it is this PPP Govern-ment’s control-freakism which compels and informs this closure. It is the communism in their little heads which they are hard put to unlearn! It is so sad to see them remain in Jurassic Park!” Ramjattan told this newspaper yesterday.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Harmon, who had represented his party at the July launching of the US-funded project, pointed out that there is money in the project to help with voter education as well as strengthening grass root democracy.
“The fact that they would not want to agree to something like that, exposes the PPP party for what it is, that it is a party that is not supportive of educating the masses, of ensuring that people are prepared for local government elections and ensuring a certain level of inclusiveness in the political affairs of the country,” Harmon told this newspaper.
Harmon argued that democracy must be practised from the ground up to ensure that people at the lowest level of the political system are prepared and educated for their role in the governance of the country.
“So this project, as we understand it is…meant to address these issues, and so by not signing on the government is exposing itself as the anti-working class, anti-people government that they are, he said.
He questioned why the government would object to the project when it actually has monies coming into the country for a specific purpose adding that “it does not make sense to me…” Harmon said as far as he knows the project has already started and he said APNU will continue to support it as the party has always stated that the people must be educated and exposed to a level of education that makes them active participants in local government.
Meantime, Ramjattan, who was also at the launching of the project in July, noted that it is one which will help youths, women, the awareness of the electorate of the local government process, the Parlia-ment, and political parties including the PPP, among other areas. That being said, he added that his party strongly supports the project’s continuation
The AFC leader said he does not think the government’s pulling out should affect the project as USAID “should simply proceed with it at the exclusion of the ill-advised PPP Government.”
“If they do not want to participate, the monies should still be spent towards all the good purposes intended initially,” he added.
According to Ramjattan, at its launch the project was agreed to by all parties. The launch was attended by government MPs, Dr Frank Anthony, who is also the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport and Indra Chandarpal.
Ramjattan lamented that the Western donor community may get confused as to whether it should proceed with other projects of a similar kind in future and this will be the country’s loss if they decide against.
“If the USAID walks away on this project, it will have a very negative impact because a portion of this $300M was intended to go towards public awareness of the local Government processes,” he said.
The party leader recalled that in 2009 he had written an analysis which developed out of works done by Oxford economist Paul Collier that regimes tending towards kleptocracy, like he said is the case with the PPP, will love when donor communities deliver actual monies, or goods which are consumables like vaccines or equipment in their aid programmes. But when these countries commence projects to give another form of goods, namely, accountability and education in democracy and participation, these regimes condemn this sort of delivery.
“This is what is happening here. Then like good scoundrels, they would scream: `Sovereignty and no internal political interference’. The USAID and the ABCE countries must not be terrified by these screams. They should challenge these potential tyrants!” the party leader declared.
The government recently announced its rejection of the Leadership and Democracy (LEAD) project but the US Embassy has expressed the hope that it would still be implemented.
“We look forward to continuing to engage with all stakeholders to ensure the success of this programme in advancing these important goals, “ US Ambassador Brent Hardt told Stabroek News last week.
The International Republican Institute programme was launched in July of this year and Hardt told this newspaper that it was expected to bolster the functioning of the National Assembly through encouraging consensus building; and working with civil society and the public to boost citizens’ engagement with the National Assembly and all parties to support the legislature’s role as an effective deliberative body.
While initially supporting the project the government through Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon on November 26th announced that his government had rejected the project. Asked why the project was pulled, Luncheon would not go into details but stressed that the actions of USAID were not in keeping with conventions of past projects. “This one in 2012 departed from that convention… we were presented with an agreement to sign over which we had zero contribution… Why the abandonment? Nobody can explain but so grievous has been the consequence of this abandonment, Cabinet had no option but to pull the plug,” he said.
