The PPP was corrupt; the APNU-AFC is calamitous

Dear Editor,
In the last seven months, Guyana seems to have replaced a corrupt regime with a calamitous regime. Here are some prominent ones. First calamity started with the Coalition reneging on its Cummingsburg Accord that called for the Prime Minister, drawn from the AFC, to be responsible for the daily administration of government.
Today, it is obvious the Minister of State in the renamed Ministry of the Presidency is literally responsible for the daily administration of government, making him the de facto Prime Minister.
Incidentally, it does not take rocket science thinking to recognize that even if the daily administration of government portfolio was taken from Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, political tact says he should be assigned responsibility for agriculture and serve as the nexus between the coalition and Guyana’s pre-dominantly Indian agriculture community. But to be paid almost GY$2M a month and be responsible only for information, well, that sucks, big time!
Second calamity came with a revelation that the PPP left the Treasury bare, causing campaign promises of 20% pay hikes for public servants to be replaced with a 5% pay hike and a one-time GY$5,000 bonus. That arbitrary pay hike drew the ire of the GTUC, which quickly reminded the Coalition of its manifesto that promised to consult with labor bodies within the constitutional framework of inclusivity.
The third calamity was the bungled attempt at getting the minority private investors in the Berbice Bridge to lower the bridge toll.
The Coalition obviously did not do its due diligence homework here, and although the bridge management has finally relented and agreed to lower the tolls from January 1, 2016, the real winners are the private investors and the real losers are the bridge customers. How is that so?
As long as the government has to pay the difference between what bridge customers pay and what bridge management wants, the bridge customers are still footing that bill in the form of his or her taxes being used by government to pay the bridge management. In fact, bridge customers are paying twice, because the bulk of the money to build the bridge came from the NIS, which is yet to see returns on its forced investments.
The fourth calamity surfaced with word in the media of a pay raise for cabinet ministers only to be shot down by Minister Raphael Trotman.
Then Minister Joseph Harmon made it official when he said that it was true and then arrogantly declared he had no apologies. He eventually apologized, but while the damage was already done with 5% to 50% pay hikes, most of us hoped, going forward, it would serve as a teachable moment for all Coalition officials.
The fifth calamity was the Coalition’s announced decision to offer GY$50,000 Christmas bonus payouts to public servants. True, bonuses are at the discretion of the employer, but in the spirit and letter of the constitution that encourages inclusivity. Why wasn’t the GPSU invited for consultations and the announcement made jointly by Government and labor? What happened to the manifesto?
The coalition’s sixth calamity was to send Prime Minister Nagamootoo, the government’s chief representative to Parliament, to create history by having him propose a suspension of Standing Order just so the Coalition can have three bills tabled, debated and passed in one day.
The same Prime Minister who was promised the job of administering the daily affairs of government only to be assigned the information portfolio was asked, as the government’s chief representative in the House, to fetch water in a basket.
The Coalition got through with two bills and had to postpone passage of the third, and while it was two out of three here, the victory is hollow because of the strategy, which had observers and commentators wondering if the Coalition has truly gone tone deaf or is actually on the road to a dictatorship.
The Jagdeo-led opposition PPP deserves all the political bashing it gets, but at the end of the day, it is the official opposition whose parliamentary members are paid by taxpayers. It has a right to be given an opportunity to review bills in a timely manner and even consulted in the true spirit of consultation.
It was unfair, therefore, to the PPP, civil society and the rest of the nation for the Coalition to even attempt to have three very important bills tabled, debated and passed in one day.
The Coalition has a parliamentary majority and can pass these types of bills any time, which is why the attempt to rush the bills actually points to either poor management planning or absolute disregard for political conventions and public concerns to use time as a constraining factor for trying to rush these three bills before Parliament recesses for the Christmas holidays.
Further to those calamitous displays were the appointment and hiring of certain persons for posts that should have been advertised. No one really questions the qualifications and experience of several new hired ones, but questions surround the process.
We cannot have the public applauding the sending home of certain political appointees of the PPP era only to see new political appointees of the Coalition era.
I did not mention the ongoing Baishanlin fiasco among others, but it does appear as though the Coalition is making too many unforced errors.
But the one area that most Guyanese are deeply concerned about is its apparent slothfulness in going after Ali Baba and his 40-something thieves in Guyana. Still, some are of the firm opinion that with a new acting Chief Justice the move to recover what was stolen from the people will be begin in earnest.
In summary, the Coalition has to move away from being the force that changed the political landscape in 2015 to becoming the game changing force that can score political goals and political runs to the applause of supporters and onlookers.
Nothing spells defeat and disappointment like watching ardent sports fans exit a stadium early in a much-hyped game, and all because the home team is not playing to expectations.
Emile Mervin