In opposition, APNU and the AFC were vehemently condemnatory of PPP/C corruption, incompetence, undemocratic behaviour, etc. If anyone had then told me that less than two years into the life of an APNU+AFC government, similar-type perceptions of it would have reached the stage where even some of its staunchest supporters are shaking their heads in wonderment, I would have listened but not believed.
‘The historic APNU-AFC Coalition’s first 15 months has been a journey through fields of mediocrity, banality, corruptibility and utter bewilderment. How a government can drift from one jejune, embarrassing, self-destructive mistake to another without even a week of illumination and thoughtful direction for 15 consecutive months is beyond one’s imagination. But there is a big BUT. But despite the concatenation of flaws, faults, and failures in the first 15 months of the Coalition Government, there is no parallel in Caribbean politics for what took place for 15 years under Bharrat Jagdeo and Donald Ramotar in Guyana’ (Freddie Kissoon column, KN, September 4.)
The opposition PPP/C is in clover as it gleefully tabulates the wrongdoings of the coalition government. Ms. Gail Teixiera has detailed what she calls ‘15 scandalous scandals and scams’, included in which controversies are surrounding large ministerial salary increases; the specialty hospital; the many concerns about Baishanlin; out of court settlements with Demerara Distillers Ltd, BK international etc; the parking meter contract; Van West-Charles’s licence to import fuel; the pharmaceutical bond and many untendered contracts.
When it came to office, the regime famously awarded itself hefty salary increases with the explanation that without them, it was likely to become corrupted! Notwithstanding its many pious sermons to the masses about the wickedness and thievery of the PPP/C and its own intention to do what is right, there were those who viewed so early a self-interested dipping into the public purse as ominous. Now such persons claim prescience and it appears as if far from preventing corruption, the new salaries either were the first signs of it or stimulated avarice.
But the regime has not only disappointed its own supporters; its allegations of corruption, mismanagement and so on were so effective that it convinced many PPP/C supporters that their party had gone too far in its undemocratic behaviour, was raiding the public purse with impunity and that a new regime would rule better. While in our ethnic situation, this recognition by PPP/C supporters would not and did not translate into any substantial change in electoral support, it does not mean that many would not have been hoping that a new government would, at the very least, open a new era of public morality.
What has compounded this situation for the coalition government is that in the face of its now being accused of corruption, no substantial action against the supposed PPP/C perpetrators has to date materialised! ‘From last year to now, over 30 forensic audits and special reports on a number of controversial projects and agencies have been released by the coalition administration. These reports which have cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, document numerous instances of corruption, mismanagement and abuse of state resources. In spite of the aforementioned, there has been no action of consequence against those who were fingered in the corrupt acts, and the public remains uninformed. With this in mind, several critics have asked: Were the forensic audits much ado about nothing?’(SN 28/08/2016).
We are now told that that the primary purpose of the audits was not to bring the culprits to justice as the nature of the audits would not easily accommodate such an outcome and even that in opposition those now in government might have had exaggerated expectations! However, after all the government’s self-serving excuses are assessed, on balance, the answer to the question posed in the preceding paragraph is yes. The least one would have expected is that the new government would have been able to properly define its objective, choose the correct tools for getting to the root of the matter and not waste the peoples’ resources in wild goose chases!
Just as yesterday, opposition ridicule of the new regime has now reached a crescendo (referring to the executive president as a figurehead and a whole swathe of unidentified ministers as useless) that it is stepping beyond the bounds of respectful and productive public engagement. The hopes of many have been dashed, and what they have long suspected now appears to have been made plain: that the PPP and PNC are ‘two peas in a pod’!
It goes without saying that the problem is somewhat more complicated, and next week I will consider some of the suggested solutions. Suffice it to say, however, that while disillusionment pervades the political landscape, no one is quite certain what is to be done to put the ship of state on an even keel.
henryjeffrey@yahoo.com
