IT IS TIME!

Apr 19, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

Public confidence in the coalition government has been seriously dented. It is now at an all-time low.
No one needs an opinion poll to confirm this fact. There is resentment out there over recent revelations in the media about the actions of the government.
The coalition government continues to make mistake after mistake. Its mishandling of matters of State has cost a loss of public support for the coalition.
Some of that support has been permanently lost. People have decided they have had enough of the government.
The PPP, unfortunately, does not benefit from this loss of confidence. People have become apathetic at what they see as the pathetic performance of the administration.
The apathetic will not vote for the PPP. They simply will not vote.
The PPP will not get any crossover votes from those who are disappointed with the coalition. But people have simply been turned-off by what they see happening with the coalition government.
The coalition is in a mess. There is infighting taking place and this infighting is being done through the media with parties issuing statements instead of sitting down and renegotiating the Cummingsburg Accord.
The coalition needs to clear up its mess but not by press statements. It needs performance, not travelling salesmen to correct this mess. Those who believe that the coalition has performed well over the eleven months in power should ask each Minister to name two things that they are most proud of achieving over the past year.
Not twenty things, just two things and then determine how well the coalition government has performed over the past year. Name two major achievements of the government over the past year which were not part of the pipeline of PPP projects.
Rice markets have disappeared. The jail has become unmanageable. Bandits are on the prowl. SOCU is peeping into people’s business. The Georgetown Hospital has gotten worse since the coalition got into office.
There seems to be no coordinated information flow from the government – too many cooks are spoiling the broth. Social cohesion has become a talk shop.  Decisions in the local government sector are being challenged in the courts.
There are tensions in the housing ministry. UG students are dissatisfied. Parents are worried about subjectivity in making the Common Entrance examinations. No major investment has come the government way in one year. The list is endless.
The disappointment of supporters of the coalition has been too much. They expected better.
They may be able to convince themselves that the coalition inherited a mess from the PPPC. But they cannot accept the coalition will behave like the PPPC.
They anticipated greater consistency from the coalition. This is an area of great concern.
The coalition has not been consistent when it comes to its pre-election policies. When it was trying to woo the votes from its supporters, it was highly critical of the investments of certain Chinese companies in Guyana.
It promised certain things. It promised change.
Imagine how hurt, how devastated must be the supporters of the government to discover that the officials of the government have become very close to the very persons and companies which were being highly criticized when APNU and the AFC were in opposition.
People turned a blind eye to what they saw as attempts by certain business persons to latch on to the coalition. This was a mistake by the people.
It was also a mistake by the coalition. They should have picked their friends carefully.
They should have decided early who they were going to be close to and who they would keep a distance from. Instead, the coalition began accepting donations from certain persons and they should not be doing this period.
The government does not need to be accepting any donations for anything from private persons. This was a bad move because it creates the wrong impression in the minds of the public that these persons from whom these donations were accepted could end up being favoured.
Why is the government cavorting with persons whom they were highly critical of when the parties that now form the government were in opposition? How does the government explain this closeness?
Guyanese voted for change. They wanted change from the lousy deals made by the PPP/C when it was in government.
The people do not want to see the very forces which were being criticized now in bed with the government. This is unacceptable.
The issue is one of consistency. If the coalition cannot be consistent about what it stood for before the elections, how can it be expected to enjoy the continued support of the people who voted for change?
The APNU+AFC came to power on a platform of change. They said, “It is time” for change from the PPP.
The people are now saying that “it is time” for a change in direction from the coalition.

---

---