Dear Editor,
On the eve of our May 11 general elections, the APNU+AFC coalition supporters called for change and they got it. I do not know what this change will mean or what it will look like going forward. But the idealists among us can be forgiven if the advent of the new coalition government does not exactly usher in a new era of better times and the end of all the loathsome practices of the past.
In President Granger, our electorate has picked a leader with a military background. Hardest of all is for career military officers to accept that in a democracy, they are elected to govern and not to rule over us. Perhaps we need not cry wolf, as President Granger conceivably understands the problem and has a clear view of his role.
As the new president and his team settle in they are rightly now starting to move away from their narrow-minded obsession with corruption in the PPP/C and are now coming to terms with the broad scope of challenges which must be addressed if Guyana is to move forward.
President Granger’s first challenge is to disabuse the minds of his more naive and less informed supporters that after election day everything has changed and the new APNU+AFC government can magically do everything for everyone and balance our books at the same time.
APNU+AFC supporters will need to understand that the economy we have today is the same one we had before the election and which has now been handed down to the APNU+AFC coalition by the PPP/C government.
The new coalition government will have to run on budget and priorities just like the PPP/C. Our infrastructural needs are still huge, and the policy response will almost always be inadequate to fix roads, bridges and wharves across the regions. And this will be true even if that gushing oil well is discovered in the Essequibo some time soon.
And besides all of this, what is even more critical for the APNU+AFC coalition involves the management of the economy, and the absolute need to keep growth sizeable and sustained in future years. An economy needs robust growth if it is to be the backbone for job creation and the improvement in living standards. If our APNU+AFC coalition has a workable plan to incentivize investors and entrepreneurs to expand our economy, then they should deploy it quickly, lest doubts fester about where they are taking us.
Another important challenge faces the coalition which I believe is largely self inflicted. In its sanctimonious attack on the PPP/C’s record of mishandling the corrupt behaviour of its ministers, the coalition has created the perception that it will run a squeaky clean administration that is largely corruption free. A corruption free government is so utopian that I cannot wrap my mind around it.
In practical terms, I would have to suspend all critical thinking before I can believe this. I would have to believe the APNU+AFC coalition is populated by a bunch of saints, with not a greedy bone in their bodies, and their moral compass so rigidly aligned to the centre that even the thought of using public office for personal gain does not cross their minds.
I do not think APNU+AFC can deliver such perfection. I also do not think that APNU+AFC is out of the woods as regards its own unity given the nature of coalition governments and their internal dynamics.
Hopefully the President has enough safeguards to insure the coalition partners stick it out together, at least up to the time the next election rolls around and Guyanese have the chance to vote once again.
Yours faithfully,
Wesley Hicken