The silence of the political opposition

Sep 26, 2009 Editorial

The silence of the opposition in the face of serious national issues is something of concern for the more that 44 per cent of the population that voted against the current rulers of the nation. And there are very many issues that demand political action.
More recently, there were a number of queries about some government contracts that appeared to be excessively high. Kaieteur News decided to investigate the anomaly and for its efforts, got accused of waging a campaign against the government.
The harsh reality is that being one of the watchdogs of the nation, the paper thought that contractors were charging far too much to execute certain programmes. And as if to suggest that there was collusion at the higher level, many of these contracts appeared to match figures presented by the engineers. Investigations seemed to find that some of the items were priced beyond the normal range and figures supplied by the suppliers seemed to suggest this. Now it is here that the political opposition should have joined in the act because its members have access to a question and answer forum—Parliament.
There is no Freedom of Information Act in Guyana so accessing information from official circles is more than difficult. It took almost forever for Kaieteur News to access some of the information from the Agriculture Ministry and even then, there was more that was requested but not forthcoming. There was the issue of many buildings, apparently constructed with good intentions but are white elephants. These merit query because money from the public treasury went into their construction.
A vibrant opposition would have obtained details of every project being undertaken with public funds. The political parties in the national Assembly should have asked all the relevant questions so that the nation would have been aware of the movement of their tax dollars.
Sadly enough, these members of parliament seem more inclined to deal with issues that are more in the realm of the middle class. In the absence of support from the political circles, the media are often left to fend for themselves, sometimes running the risk of being accused of pursuing political agendas.
Just this week, during a forum on Freedom of Information, one media owner remarked that he tried to get information about a guard service operated by Chairman of the Board of Directors of President’s College, David DeGroot. The media owner wrote to President’s College and to the head of the guard service and got no answer. On Wednesday, Mr. DeGroot proudly announced that no answer would be forthcoming. This is the kind of challenge that he media face. One national official can bluntly proclaim that he has to account to no one for his actions. The political opposition could have forced an answer.
The current issue that has grabbed the attention is a tape–recording of an individual having a conversation with a teenaged boy. An innocuous conversation between a child and an adult would not have raised an eyebrow but this one has the elder person soliciting sex.
The media latched on to the tape and reported as any media house would. Of course, there were those closely aligned to the government that pretended that the issue did not exist.
The media houses sought comments pertaining to the suitability of the elder person for certain public commissions. To date, only two Ministers, both of them serving in the Cabinet, have offered a comment. Neither has admitted to hearing the tape and both have claimed that they have the right to reserve their comment.
Two opposition politicians have commented and both of them are mere representatives of their political parties.
To its credit, one civil organisation has taken to the streets to protest this transgression but there is no word from the Guyana Human Rights Association or any other civil organisation. It is as if a wall of silence has descended on the country and it is now left to the media and the few who are truly fed up to lead protests.

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The silence of the political opposition

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