THE OPPOSITION HAS A RECORD TO DEFEND, AND IT BEGAN NOT IN 1964 BUT IN 2011
April 17, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source
The happenings in Guyana’s elections campaign is nothing new. There is no major difference between what is being seen in the country today from what happened in the past.
We have been down this road many times in the past. I have seen it all before and I have heard it all before. Nothing is surprising.
I have heard the opposition parties since 1992 singing the same old tune. The lyrics may have changed, but it is the same beat and the same rhythm.
I have seen umpteen times before the same old scenes. I have seen the posters on the lantern posts. I have seen the flags and buntings. I have witnessed poorly attended road-corner meetings. I have seen the huge political rallies. I have heard speakers in the past from both sides say cruel and unkind things about their rivals. Nothing has really changed.
This is not the first time and it certainly is not going to be the last time that we will hear about “It is time.” In the past I have heard about, “Time for Change” and “Time Up.” The message is the same. It is only a tweaking of the words.
The opposition supporters are hyped up. They feel that there will be a change this time around. But have they not felt this way at every election from 1992 to date? At every election from 1992 onwards, the supporters of the PNC, PNCR and APNU have been led to believe that victory was in store. But still the PPPC won.
The PPPC knows how to win elections; that is, free and fair elections. They won in 2011 but lost their majority because of complacency and the fact that the votes at a number of polling stations in Region 3 were not counted. This time there is not likely to be any complacency because the supporters of the PPPC, indeed the entire country, have had a taste of what opposition power would look like. They have seen what the opposition did to the tenth parliament with their one-seat majority.
Many people feel that it is the PPPC who has a record to defend. But they are wrong. It is the AFC and APNU which has to defend what they did with their one-seat majority and how they were either outfoxed by the PPPC or adopted positions that placed a hold on major developmental initiatives.
Yesterday, the opposition elements were outside of the Marriott Hotel with placards. One of the placards tried to make a point that the government found money for the Marriott but could not find money for the University of Guyana. Well, the government has already negotiated billions of dollars for the revamping of the University of Guyana. How come the opposition missed that one?
The political rallies of the opposition have been dominated, as they ought to be, with criticisms of the government. The opposition has said what it will do but it has mainly said this in a general way. There have been little or no details as to how the things it says it will do will be done.
For example, there is a proposal about tax reform. But what is this going to entail, another study? The opposition should have rolled out specific tax measures and then said what are likely to be the effects of those measures and the compensatory measures, if any, that are going to be put in place.
The opposition has long promised to reduce VAT. But they are not saying by how much. The last election they spoke about a few percentage points.
This is not going to bring any relief to consumers. Reducing VAT by less than 5% is not going to cause prices to fall. The opposition therefore has to spell out exactly by how much they propose to reduce VAT and more importantly, whether they will insist that all businesses pay VAT. One of the big concerns of the business community is that some businesses are not registered for VAT.
The opposition is promising jobs. But how and where are these jobs going to be created? The government on the other hand has to merely state what they are doing. They can point to one investment alone in the city that will soon unleash more than five hundred jobs. They can refer to the developments in call centres that have created thousands of jobs for the young people, whom the opposition is claiming do not have work.
Is it that there are no jobs? Or is it that those who claim there are no jobs do not really want to take up the jobs that are available?
The two specific things that the opposition has promised are to increase wages by 13% and to build a road from Linden to Lethem. This 13% is a most disappointing offer. And the PPPC already has plans to build that road to Lethem.
If this is the best that the opposition can offer, then not much should be expected of the opposition. But then again we have heard all of this before, have we not?
