With two weeks of the new year nearly finished, President Ramotar is cavalierly treating his solemn commitment to the country to name a date for general elections. With each passing day it becomes clearer that the Ramotar administration and the ruling PPP are doing their utmost to extend their stay in office without having to return to the polls. Given the incessant boasts carried on state TV, the weekly PPP press conferences and the ponderous briefings by the Cabinet Secretary on the glories of this and administrations past,  the average observer would believe that the government is eager to return to the polls to exploit the general satisfaction and happiness it claims to exist. Yet there is no evidence of this on the ground. The starkest evidence of hesitancy to face the electorate is the President’s unwillingness over several months now to name a date or to trigger the process by virtue of the AFC’s motion of no-confidence.

There are three important reasons why President Ramotar should act statesmanlike and immediately name a date for the polls. First, while he retains the traditional ability of the incumbent to name a date for general elections he does so without any standing whatsoever. His government is unable to continue in office since the representatives of the majority of the people who voted against him are prepared to pull the plug on his administration. To avoid this, President Ramotar has begun to unleash every single subterfuge possible, including the suspending of the people’s assembly and the law-making forum of the land. That draconian step which has persisted for more than two months now has rapidly begun to erode the party’s democratic credentials and made it a counterfeit of what the Jagans laboured for in humble sugar communities for decades prior to the 1992 elections. President Ramotar’s government is no longer viable and he should refrain from further damage to the country’s image.

Second, as was referenced in the Sunday Stabroek editorial of January 4th, President Ramotar’s fulsome iteration on New Year’s Day of the projects that he will pursue – without even a nod to the possibility that he might no longer be at the helm after elections – underlines the delusional state that the administration finds itself in. Worse, it must be evident to him and his supporters that not one of those projects has a realistic hope of fruition unless there is a stable government in place. The costly Amaila Falls Hydropower Project is an exquisite example. No investor, no matter what guarantees this government offers will proceed with this project unless there is stable governance. In essence, by dragging out this interregnum, President Ramotar’s administration has now become the most potent force in holding back the development of the country and its broadly accepted hydropower ambitions. Whether it is the bridge over the Corentyne or options for the troubled sugar industry these will have to await the outcome of fresh elections before they can be properly implemented.

Third, unstable and weak governments like President Ramotar’s run the risk of taking insupportable and unjustified decisions on behalf of the country either because they convince themselves that they are still fully in charge or simply as desperate measures to find some way to stay on. The abuse of state resources in what is essentially a pre-election and campaign period is the proximate example of this malady. Between now and the elections each and every foray into communities without some specific pre-existing purpose will be perceived as electioneering and an abuse of state resources in the pursuit of returning the PPP/C to office.

President Ramotar’s visit to India is redolent of another type of danger. A line of credit of US$50M for the corridor linking the East Coast and East Bank is no doubt of great value in a well thought out development plan. However, no government in transition and on the shakiest ground possible has a mandate to conclude agreements of this nature which have inherent risks in them and can cost the state in various ways. The two most recent credits from India have ended in ignominy and would raise doubts in the minds of lawmakers both here and in New Delhi about the conditions under which these monies are expended.

After having cultivated a cozy and troubling relationship with the Indian company Surendra which saw it being unexpectedly favoured for the India-funded US$18M Specialty Hospital contract, that project is now in shambles and the government is now suing the elusive contractor over sums expended. It has been a most embarrassing development that raises questions about the due diligence that was done of Surendra and the nature of its relationship with the government and some of its senior officials. If that wasn’t bad enough, Surendra’s execution of an India-funded contract to supply 14 pumps at US$4M has left numerous questions in its wake which the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority have been unable to satisfactorily answer.

This contract and its execution must be one of a number of projects to be investigated by the administration that will take office after elections. Given the great difficulties with these two projects it is difficult to see New Delhi and its Parliament agreeing to even larger credits without firm assurances that similar problems will not arise. A government on its last legs is not in a position to give those assurances particularly considering its culture of unaccountability and the decrepit state of watchdogs such as the Office of the Auditor General.

There are of course more funds swilling around and more may be in the pipeline from Beijing. It would however be irresponsible for this government to commit the country to big ticket items considering its status. Parliament has now not met for six months and is therefore unable to discharge its crucial accountability functions.

For all these reasons and more, President Ramotar must make an urgent decision to lay the groundwork for a stable government for the country. General elections are the only way this can be achieved now considering the unproductive political discourse over the last three years.