UNCLE DONALD PUTS HIS FOOT DOWN
January 27, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features/Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source
Whenever a new leader assumes the Presidency of the country it immediately triggers expectations of change. People anticipate that the new leader will be different from his predecessor and in so doing depart from the policies that existed before.
Great has been the disappointment of those who have had such expectations that immediate upon assumption of the presidency, the new leader would depart from the policies of his predecessor or would make sweeping changes in personnel.
That never happened. It never happened when Burnham became Prime Minister in 1964; there was in fact a four year period between 1966 and 1970 of consolidation. It never happened when Hoyte succeeded Burnham. Hoyte took more than four years to change course and by that time he had no choice but to run into the arms of the IMF and World Bank, whose prescriptions Burnham had described as a recipe for riot.
This past week, Guyana had a visit from a professor. This same professor once wrote an article in which the central theme was about change and continuity in Guyanese politics.
When President Jagdeo assumed office, there were high expectations that he too would change course; that he would put some distance behind his presidency and that of the president that he succeeded. A lot of people were disappointed. But Jagdeo did eventually change the course of the party and government. It took time and it came slowly and was only recognizable in his second elected term.
Change and continuity must be expected of any President, especially continuity. No President who succeeds someone from the same party will ever find it easy to make immediate and radical departures. That will send a bad signal and hurt the image of his party because it will assume that the previous policies were not the right ones. Secondly, any new President will face the prospects of consolidating his grip on the party machinery and will have to be careful as to the step he takes so as to avoid internal dissent that could undermine his grip on power.
When it comes to government policies, change is even more problematic. Certain policies and strategies cannot simply be upended without causing major instability. If for example, when Hoyte had assumed power he had suddenly liberalized the economy, it would have posed serious problems to many of the things that were already in place and being pursued by the Burnham regime. One of these for example was exchange controls. Hoyte would never have been able to dismantle these controls without first negotiating a Fund programme, and that takes a long time.
In fact for any major initiative or project, it takes about three years of planning and negotiating and then another three years for implementation and completion. It is therefore difficult for any new President to hit the road running. He always has to be smart about continuing the policies and projects of his predecessor until such time as he completes planning and negotiating financing for his own projects.
Many people have been disappointed with the Presidency of Donald Ramotar. But this week there was a sign that the time for change has come and the President has decided to put his feet down. The President did what previous PPP governments were not inclined to do: he accepted the resignation of a minister of the government, a long standing party stalwart who had played a major role in organizing the PPPC’s victory at the 2006 polls. That person was always seen as being close to the President and therefore to let him go was a major statement on the part of the President.
President Ramotar is pursuing continuity but in pursuing continuity of policies that he sees as necessary, he is addressing some of their shortcomings. He knows there is a need for greater transparency and he has for example done what no previous President has done. He has made available to the opposition parties all the agreements that were signed by his predecessor for projects which are still being pursued.
It may be said that he had little choice in that he needed the opposition support for these projects. But the fact is that he made the agreements also available to the media. No previous President has done this.
He has also met more times and more consistently with the opposition leaders than any other political leader during the first two years of any Presidency. His personality lends to persons having trust in him because anyone who knows him will confirm that he is a likable person, honest and straightforward.
There has been change. It has been slow but it has been present. Now that two years have passed, we should begin to see Donald Ramotar making a greater mark on the politics of the country. He would have had two years to develop his own plans, consolidate his grip on the party and the government and should now be in the driver’s seat, ready to make the changes that the people who supported him the last elections are expecting.