The party has manacled the Gov’t
Sep 12, 2016 , http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....s-manacled-the-govt/
There have been calls for the removal of the Minister of Health because of his Ministry’s involvement in the controversial rental of a bond. There have been criticisms of the President for his failure to remove the Minister.
But has anyone stopped to think that it was the PNCR which at its last Congress rewarded the said Minister with reelection as Chairman of the party. The party was clearly in no mood to sanction the Minister and by its actions was effectively expressing a vote of confidence in the Minister of Health.
How in this context can the general public expect the President to move against his Minister when the party with the greatest representation in the government has effectively expressed its support for the Minister?
Not only did the ruling party give its thumbs up to the Minister of Health, it even had as either a delegate or an invitee to the opening of the Congress, the person who owns the bond that has been rented. In political lexicon, this represents either the support by the party for the deal or a signal to the President that he should not attempt to sanction the Minister or to annul the deal.
The deal has been described as undesirable from within the government but given the position taken by the PNCR, the hands of the President is tied even if he wanted to do anything about it. When a ruling party can throw it support, as was done at the last Congress, behind an embattled Minister, its show how difficult a balancing act the President has on his hands. How can he be expected to act against the clear wishes of the ruling party?
In theory he should not be bound by a decision – written or unwritten – of his party but in practice, any leader has to practice “real politics” which obligates that person to consider the interests of major constituencies.
So long as the President is leader of the PNCR, so long as the government draws the bulk of its support from the PNCR, then there is very little likelihood that the President will make a decision which is contrary to what the party wants. And it was clear at the just concluded Congress of the PNCR that the delegates were saying that the Minister of Health is a stalwart and cannot be touched.
The President’s hands are tied. There is nothing he can do even if he wanted to do anything.
There was never any indication that the President planned to sanction the Minister. When on top of this, the ruling party at its highest decision-making level expresses a vote of confidence as was done in the case of the Minister of Health, the President cannot ignore something like that.
What this shows is the difficulty is effecting change in Guyana.
It shows that unless the ruling party is prepared to take action against its leaders, then the public should not expect the government to do the same. In other words, the President is powerless to take action if such action does not find support within the ruling party. This is the reality of politics in Guyana. Some will say it is a rotten reality. The fact remains that none of the ruling parties have at any Congress taken a decision to sanction any of its Ministers.
And once this is the reality, then it is hard to expect any President to act contrary to the wishes of his party. To do so would be to commit political suicide.
Those who therefore believed that they were voting for change have gotten a wake-up call. The reality is that change has to take place at three levels. The first level is at the level of society where people tend to condone certain acts depending on interests rather than principles. Once certain interests are served certain measures are approved.
When people criticize the lack of principles, they are attacked by supporters of the ruling coalition on the grounds that the persons never criticized the PPP for doing the same. In other words, “Shut Up! This is our government and it can do as it pleases. You have no moral authority to question them.”
The second level of change has to come at the level of the party.
But we have seen how difficult and near impossible this is to achieve. Both of the main mass-based political parties in Guyana, the PNCR and the PPPC, are effectively controlled by a small cabal.
Effecting change in such an environment is near impossible. At the last Congress of the PPPC, leaders were placed to supervise discussions at the group level. This effectively intimidated delegates. It should not escape notice that there were not many new faces within the executive of the PNCR. Come December, the same result will happen at the PPP congress.
The third level of change is at the level of government. This has been a big disappointment because there has been a closing of ranks every time there has been a controversy involving Ministers of the government.
Change will not come unless government becomes less important to the fortunes of citizens.
This is why having a small and less government is the only true recipe for change.
