What we have is not working

Mar 01, 2009 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

…There has to be devolution of power away from the centralised system

Extracts of the Presentation on the 2009 Budget made by AFC Leader, Raphael Trotman

Mr. Speaker, this is the season of sophistry and of eloquence, of empty rhetoric and boundless arrogance and ignorance. This is budget season! That annual pantomime to which we willingly submit ourselves by pretending that all is well, and at the same time knowing that nothing good had transpired since we last gathered.

This is the time when we gloat of miniscule achievements as if they were gargantuan accomplishments, and diminish that which were worthy of our acclaim. It is the season of promoting illogical fiscal policies and programmes that have resulted from over-active imaginations.
I wonder why we keep coming back for more and wonder every year, and every day, whether it is duty that compels us, or stupidity that commits us to be here?
I am reminded of Shakespeare’s words: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances.”

In the eyes of the people out there we have become mere actors and actresses performing in this annual pantomime. Nonetheless, I have been advised that for the time being we have to hold sacred to this tradition of budget presentation and debates, and have the patience of Job if we are to bring about change for which all Guyanese crave.
This year’s budget, Mr. Speaker, falls dangerously close to being described as pedestrian. There is simply no vision and nothing exciting that offers hope for improving the quality of life this year and beyond. I hope that the Minister is not offended, but nothing jumps out at us to create that ‘wow” or “yes” effect.

GOVERNANCE:
Mr. Speaker, we in the AFC reiterate that no budget, whether described as the largest or smallest, will adequately address the nation’s myriad difficulties and complexities unless, and until, we solve our problem of governance.
Mr. Speaker, there are many terms being bandied about, including “inclusive governance”, shared governance, power-sharing, and participatory governance. This in itself tells us that what we have is not working. We in the AFC believe that there has to be a devolution of power away from the centralised system where people in their villages, towns, and in the city can become masters and commanders of their own affairs.

There is a certain distasteful presence of arrogance which is being displayed by this Government. It is harmful to good relations if indeed the achievement of good relations is the desire of the government at all. We see it in the back-handed dismissal of public servants and the threat of dismissal dangled over the heads of the Air Traffic Controllers if they had only dared to picket “His Excellency, the President.” We witness it in the threats of arrest and prosecution of Honourable Members of this Assembly, and we live it every time we come here and our good advice is unceremoniously dismissed and rejected as was unsophisticatedly done yesterday at the GDF Annual Officers’ Conference.

I am confident, however, that our body politic is undergoing a transformation; not perhaps at the rate at which most of us would want it to go, but a transformation none the less. We have to adapt if we expect to survive.
In the months ahead we dedicate ourselves to work with all groups to bring change and betterment to Guyana. From our parliamentary perspective we will, in addition to the numerous expected engagements, be seeking to advance five critical causes this year:

1. The advancement of Freedom of Information legislation,
2. The adoption of Constitutional Amendments to address the Electoral and Party List Systems,
3. The Free and widespread distribution of the Constitution of Guyana to every citizen,
4. The vexed issue of campaign financing and political party responsibilities at election time; and
5. A review of the Termination of Pregnancy Act.

We expect to work to win the support of all parties in the advancement of our agenda, even as we are expected to support the agenda of others.
To us in the AFC, Mr. Speaker, we strongly and passionately believe in the cause of bringing freedom to the people. Most important to us at this time is the freedom of the citizenry to have information that will impact their lives, information that will allow them to make informed decisions. We hope in the not too distant future to announce to the nation that we have managed to arrive at a modus vivendi with the PPP/C government that will see the Bill before the house moving off from its stationery position unto a faster track for action and implementation. More of that will be forthcoming.

We know that this budget will be passed by a simple majority of this house because this is the established practice of our democracy as practised in this Assembly. It is not the very essence, but the bitterest bile of the type of democracy we practise here in Guyana. It is the type of democracy where, despite our inherited and inherent differences as peoples comprising the nation state, those who meet the threshold of 51% are given the sacred right and duty to govern for all, while those who number 49% are kept out and away from the decision-making process. We engage in a dance of semantics and obfuscation about being inclusive and progressive as manifested in committee meetings, meaningless consultations, and regular and long sittings of Parliament.

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen” – (Winston Churchill). There is no shortage of courage in this house on either side. The people want us to sit down and to speak. We have to have the courage to engage in a wider discussion on governance, not the type that sees just two people in an incestuous embrace, feathering their personal nests, but the type that reaches out to all people, to all their representatives – along secular, religious, social, and religious lines. Any approach other than the people’s own, Mr. Speaker, will not receive the approbation and acceptance of the people and will be strenuously resisted.