Latest update August 28th, 2026 10:26 AM
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TESTING THE POLITICAL WATERS
Sometimes when politicians want to do something but are unsure about what reaction the intended action will attract, they test the political waters.
They do this in a variety of ways. They may, for example, drop a hint that is close to what they plan to do just to see what will be the reaction. In some cases, though, such hints will reveal their hand and so in order to test the waters they use others to make statements to see how the public will react.
The choice is often persons whose stature is not high and whose opinions can be easily dismissed so that in case there is an adverse reaction, the public will not take the statement too seriously since they do not take the person from whom it is coming very seriously.
There are times, though, when politicians find it necessary to test the waters directly. And so what they do is to make a guarded statement, non committal but one nonetheless which has to be responded to and thus allows the politician to directly test the political waters without making a firm commitment to do something.
At his last Press Conference, the President of Guyana responded to sentiments about the need for an Interim Management Committee.
The President did not state that he was moving in this direction. What he did was instead test the political waters about this point by stating that if the Leader of the Opposition wanted it, there could be a non-political council installed.
It was an extremely astute move by the President. He did not come out and state that he will be installing an IMC. He said that if the leader of the opposition favours this, then it can be looked at. The President was testing the political waters.
The response that he got was far from ambiguous. The Leader of the Opposition has made it clear that the solution to the problem is for local government elections to be held. The President has got his answer. The opposition is opposed to an IMC.
But the Leader of the Opposition was also sending another message. That message was that at this stage political co-operation between the government and the PNCR over City Hall is not on the cards. The President therefore got another answer to another question which may have been engaging his attention. There is not going to be business as usual at this time.
There was of course precedence for the installation of an IMC within the city. A few years ago, the President and the Leader of the Opposition agreed on an IMC for Linden.
Thus, there is precedence for the two to agree to a similar arrangement so as to install a new regime at City Hall given the problems now facing the capital.
The waters have been tested and the answer has been emphatic. There is not likely to be any agreement between the two leaders.
The President however still has the prerogative to act. He does not need the leader of the opposition to dissolve the present council. He can do so on his own. However, in acting on his own, the President risks the political consequences. Georgetown is seen as a prized political turf, one that the opposition does not wish to surrender to the ruling party.
It also does not wish to give to the government any political advantage in the run up to local government elections and thus it will resist even an agreement that would see even a non- political interim council being appointed.
The opposition is however weak and therefore the President can still act. He does not, as mentioned before, need the support of anyone to install an interim management committee.
He also has a strong moral and legal basis on which to act. According to the Minister of Local Government, the government has a report on the Auditor General and also the report of a Commission of Inquiry which was established by the government to investigate the situation at Town Hall.
With these reports, the government can act and dissolve the existing Council. If the government decides to move in this direction, the citizens will get a hint because the government will test the waters and this time they are likely to do so by employing the device mentioned earlier, one of having underlings make some statements about the need to install a new Council, thereby, testing the political waters to gauge the reaction of citizens to this move.
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