Gilbakka was a card-carrying PPP financial member/activist from 1969 to 1990 and supporter until the 2011 general election. I could not support the PPP thereafter with a clear conscience, having regard to real manifestations of self-aggrandizement by many central committee members and allegations of corruption in top and middle levels of the PPP/C government.
Since 2012, I have been a supporter of the AFC. Not a card-carrying member. A supporter. To this day I remain an AFC supporter but there are things that worry me and I am speaking out now. The deeds of AFC leaders conflict with their words. Example: Last year AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan said that if the party coalesced with APNU it would become βdead meat.β The AFC is in the coalition now, and that cost the party the bulk of its 2011 Berbice votes which the PPP snapped up.
During the election campaign APNU+AFC promised public servants a 20 percent across-the-board pay increase. The coalition delivered less. APNU+AFC promised rice farmers $9,000 per bag of paddy but hasn't delivered, now pleading that prices are a private matter between millers and farmers. APNU+AFC had rightly said the PPP was a government of friends, families and cronies. Last week Minister Harmon disclosed that a part of the Ministry of the Presidency is now in the office of the former Leader of the Opposition, David Granger, and that the government is paying a monthly rent of $400,000 to the office's owners, the law firm Hughes, Fields and Stoby. AFC Chairman Nigel Hughes is a partner of that firm.
For me, the most alarming move of the coalition is the increase of government ministers' salaries by up to 50 percent, after telling public servants that it inherited a bankrupt treasury. Further, the ministerial increases are retroactive to July 1, only one month and a half after they were appointed. Furthermore, the Guyanese people learned about the pay hike through the news media which in turn got the information from the low-circulation Official Gazette. This contrasts with an APNU+AFC Joint Manifesto promise under the heading 'Good Governance Action Plan' #2 of 13: βEnsure transparency and accountability by granting access to citizens of all aspects of government's transactions and activities.β
As an AFC supporter, Gilbakka cannot swallow the pill that the pay increase will deter corruption. Incorruptible people don't need financial incentives; they live by the principle 'Honor before money'.
I have reasons to believe that the AFC leadership's actions in the government will cost it support and votes and that one day the party will become dead meat indeed. I am calling on card-carrying AFC members to speak up and tell the leaders to take stock of themselves before it's too late. Meanwhile, from now on I am offering the coalition critical support.