Dear Editor,
When I wrote my letter a few days ago expressing disapproval with the government’s final offer to the GPSU for wages and salaries increases for public servants for 2016, which was published in both SN and KN on Sunday, August 28, I made it my duty to call on Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, WPA’s representative in the APNU+AFC government and cabinet, to inform the nation on the position he took in cabinet’s deliberations on the wages and salaries issue. At the same time I also made the comment that I am awaiting the response of the PNCR Congress on this matter, since the congress was taking place subsequent to the announcement of government’s final offer.
I do not believe that the call directed to Dr Roopnaraine and my expectations of a PNCR declaration on the wages/salaries offer were misplaced or mischievous. In this new dispensation and in the era of accountable politics, and bearing in mind what is at stake politically, they are well founded and reasonable expectations. Individual political leaders and parties must be responsive to expressions of public concerns in matters dealing with their conduct, policy decisions and the management of the country. Failure to do so is politically retrogressive and it undermines the political culture. Gone are the days when politicians and political parties can do as they please and in the process, expect to be given an easy passage. It is important for the ruling coalition to, as far as possible, observe this simple principle, particularly when one bears in mind that only recently, a writer observed that the “honeymoon period” for the APNU +AFC is over.
The unpardonable silence of comrade Roopnaraine stands in stark contradiction to WPA’s tradition of building a new political culture and its commitment to the enhancement of democracy and the empowerment of the masses. It has become increasingly difficult for me to continue to pretend that I am comfortable with the present situation in which the WPA is treated with contempt, even as it is expected to share collective responsibility for the coalition government’s actions and policies, when in fact it is deliberately being kept in the dark on important matters. This makes accountability and representation of the people’s interests almost impossible. It makes no sense for the APNU+AFC coalition to speak about a new dispensation while at the same time, behave in a contradictory manner to the basic conventions of good governance in our respective parties and government. It must be borne in mind continuously that we had committed ourselves to best practice in our internal and public political conduct.
While Roopnaraine’s silence, despicable as it is, can be seen as a personal shortcoming politically, the same can’t be said for the PNCR’s Congress silence, since that organ is the highest decision-making organ of the party. The PNCR is expected in its actions and deliberations, to reflect a wide array of interest both in the party and country. One would have thought that it is in the interest of the PNCR, as the major party in both the APNU and coalition, to demonstrate leadership on the government’s handling of the public servants’ wages and salaries negotiations, which, because it is such an important issue in Guyana’s evolution, has the potential of long-term consequences for the coalition and government. Unfortunately, this leadership was not forthcoming at the just concluded congress. The media reports coming out of the congress and my inquiries of persons who claimed to have attended the congress, gave me the impression that the wages and salaries issue did not find a place on the formal agenda, nor was it raised from the floor. If these reports are indeed accurate it speaks volumes about the state of the party and the political consciousness of those who attended the congress.
When a congress of a major party fails to address the important issue of workers’ remuneration, and more so when that party is the largest party in the government, it raises a number of questions as it relates to whose interest the party is committed to, and which class or classes and social forces dominate the party at this historic moment. Given the fact that a large section of the PNCR rank and file constitutes Guyana’s poor and powerless, and they represent the biggest block of voters for the party and the coalition, it is only natural to expect at such an important forum of the party that there will be some expression of concern over the meagre 10% offer to the low income workers. I am certain that if the PNCR was in opposition and the PPP/C had made the same offer there would have been a tremendous outcry and a resolution denouncing the offer. Some will say that it is not politically realistic to expect the same political response from a party in power that was in the political wilderness for 23 years. To accept this logic is to accept self-defeating politics since that behaviour undermines the party, coalition and government. Objectively, the least one would have expected was a call, if not an instruction from congress for the government to revisit its final offer to the GPSU, with the intention to improve it.
It is not appropriate for me to delve deeper into the PNCR’s internal politics to find an explanation for the congress’s short-sightedness. This responsibility lies with the PNCR leaders and members. Suffice it to say that what happened in the party congress is important to the coalition, the government and country.
Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye