Dear Editor.
With much consternation and anxiety I read Dr David Hinds latest piece on this blog www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com. As I read it I was constrained and anxious because I seem to want to agree with the premise from which Dr Hinds wrote.
But my anxiety was soon relaxed and swayed when I paused briefly to reflect on the modus operandi of the current administration. I realized that there are inside rationalizations for how the new government operates that Dr Hinds seem not to have access to, and I even less so.
As the Granger administration took up office there was a clarion cry for youths to be substantially represented in the cabinet, if only because of the role they played in the APNU+AFC latest victory. That was not to be. I stood in the audience at Congress Place Sophia on the evening of the birth anniversary of President Granger and I heard him kind of explain why he had not acquiesced to the cries of those who wanted more young people in the administration.
He said in essence that he was 67 when he came to parliament and now he is President at 70 and that the young people need to understand that they must wait their turn. So what we are noticing is the positioning of those who have waited for 23 years. Some obviously longer.
There must be some highly intellectual and politically skilled persons who are advising the current leaders to take such a gamble of asking the youths of the country to wait their turn.
I would love to hear the political ploy that will be implemented to recapture the energy of the young folks to so engage them at the next polls.
Then there is the pay increase issue. Again, neither Dr Hinds nor I seem to understand the inner workings of the government officials. Some high-powered advisor/s, with political savvy and diplomatic know-how must have concocted a political parachute with which to cushion the landing of the new administration when next it’s time to proceed to the polls.
It cannot be that the administration would come so close to a major political blunder and not have some eureka sleight-of-hand, to pilot them out of this protracted quagmire.
If I were to proffer a reason for such perceived political gaffes, I would want to think that the President is acting out of principle and not political expediency. The truth is that the current opposition would have done nothing while in power to so alienate their supporters, especially if it was to the benefit of the then opposition.
The government must know how the political winds are blowing. So whether you like it or not, whether you agree with them or no, you must admit that if a political party is prepared to lose the government over any issue, it must be because they are prepared to take the gamble of placing principle over political expediency. And for that, they must be commended.
Yours faithfully,
Pastor W P Jeffrey