The trials, tribulations and triangulations of incumbency

Nov 18, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

There was a little incident in the current election campaign that was given big coverage for one reason – the heckler at a PPP public meeting in Canje, Berbice was kept in the lock-up at the police station overnight. His incarceration made the news against the swirling controversies involving Kwame McCoy in the campaign too. But it was what came out of the mouth of the heckler that interests the analyst (though I must admit for this analyst, the overnight jailing was uncalled for and should never have happened).
When Leslie Ramsammy told the listeners that the PPP/C Government gave Berbicians a bridge, the gentleman interrupted Ramsammy by shouting, “You lie! Is ah private company and de toll too dear.”
The brutal reality is that the exclamation is factually correct. The Berbice Bridge company is private and the toll charge was arrived at after discussion with the company. Berbice-based attorney, Charandass Persaud, requested that I appear each week on his television programme in New Amsterdam. After the second week, I told Charran that it was too expensive a venture, especially the bridge toll. For an ordinary car, it is $2,200, much less than an SUV which my RAV4 is categorized as. That was it for me on the television programme, after two weeks of appearance.
The weakness of the ruling party in the election campaign is what the Stabroek News referred to as the burden of incumbency. And this incumbency is far from flawless, polished, elegant and impressive. On the contrary! This incumbency is two decades old. This means that those 18-year-olds who are going off in the army, the police or the university would only have known one government- the PPP/C regime.
All those who are 20-years-old would know only the PPP/C in power. Those who are 25-years-old would have very vague memories of the Hoyte interregnum and would know only the PPP/C as the group that was in charge of their country.
But there is nothing wrong with that. Although long years in power have its greatest weakness in that the human mind would desire a change, if incumbency has had a fantastic record then the mind might adjust to longevity. In the case of Guyana, the record is a tarnished one. The ruling party would need the world’s greatest talents in all the categories of the social sciences to help it stave off the relentless attacks of the opposition parties, human rights critics and outspoken sections of civil society.
And one doubts very much that these geniuses can help the incumbents.
In life, wrongs cannot be scientifically transformed into rights. A sin is a sin. A crime is a crime. The naked truth is that 20 years are not 20 months. The longer you stay in power, the greater is the temptation to yield to bestial instincts, the greater is the temptation to pocket some small change that belongs to the Treasury.
The longer you stay in power a small change may become a million, then a billion then a mansion.
So we are talking about corruption and naked power. Could the incumbents survive criticisms of this style of governance? Let’s quote from an editorial of this newspaper;
“He (the President) must be prepared to explain the untold wealth some of his Ministers managed to accrue although their earnings do not support the acquisition.” (Tuesday, Nov 15) And how do we know about this extravagant display of wealth? Because our population is not 50 million but just under 800,000. So we see the stuff for ourselves.
A new Minister has accumulated vast amount of prime real estate. No problem! Out of love, his mother or aunt or uncle could have given him the money to buy the stuff. But why did they wait until he became a Minister to show their generosity? Isn’t this strange? Or does he think the Guyanese people are stupid?
Attorney Nigel Hughes told me last week that if there is a new government after the November elections, there has to be a forensic audit of how the country’s resources were given away. Surely, this would be a major expectation of the population.
One can move from corruption to basic decency with which a group of rulers must treat its subjects with. Why should a nation read in foreign newspapers that an investor from India has bought thousands of acres of land in the interior and that a Caribbean company is investing in a Marriott Hotel here? And what about good governance?
Shall we continue?

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The trials, tribulations and triangulations of incumbency

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