A new era dawns

Dec 04, 2011 Features / Columnists, My Column

---

In the past few days every comment was about the elections and the results. Indeed, many people were pacified, because they recognized that the government would not hold total sway over what goes on in Parliament. And indeed, we have seen the opposition make solid arguments about the passage of some piece of legislation and get nowhere, because the government simply brushed them aside with its majority.
Things reached the stage where the government called Parliament so infrequently that a simple comparison of sittings between administrations showed that the previous administration held parliament about twice as often as the current one.
Members’ day, a necessary event to allow the opposition to question the government on issues, was also infrequent. Instead, the opposition had to submit questions well in advance and depending on the Minister, there were some written answers and more often than not, oral ones.
In one case a Minister lied. Parliament promised to sanction him. This was never done. The parliament was eventually dissolved and that matter is now left undecided.
The nation saw numerous requests and votes for financial allocations. There were the challenges but the government got its way because of its majority. Some of these allocations were for questionable activities, but there was nothing that the opposition could do to stop the release of the funds.
No one could get answers to questions about state-sponsored travels. On one occasion, when the opposition asked about the cost of a particular trip by President Bharrat Jagdeo they got an answer that left a lot to be desired. In the end, President Jagdeo became one of the most frequent travelled heads of state.
Things promise to be different. There is going to be greater scrutiny and the opposition has the power to say no to certain expenditures. Committees that should have been in place never came into effect. This is not going to be the case.
For example, challenges to certain committees would now not go unanswered.  There was a lot of hullaballoo about the Chairmanship of the Ethnic Relations Commission. This could not be resolved because the government had the power to hold firm. This is not going to be the case. The wider society expects to get a greater say in the running of the country.
The reaction to the poll has spread far and wide. Reports out of the Caribbean hail the polls. This is an indication that they too recognised what was happening in Guyana and felt that the people deserved better. The United States Ambassador considered the results a “win-win” situation for all of Guyana.
But even as there have been these reactions, Robert Persaud decided that the situation is not good for Guyana. In the first instance, he considered that his party owned the people of Guyana. He abused those of his perceived supporters who declined to vote.
He accused them of apathy and complacency. He failed to take into consideration that they were saying to him that they were fed up with the performance of the government, the broken promises and the fact that shortly before the polls, some Canje cane cutters actually told President Jagdeo that whatever he was saying was coming too late.
But Robert Persaud was even more arrogant. He claimed that if the PPP had lost the elections then there would not have been any more free and fair elections. His was the contention that only his party was capable of presiding over free and fair elections, that all others were dishonest.
This is an indictment on opponents of the PPP and at this time when people are saying that the PPP government under Jagdeo was the most corrupt, this must be the most glaring disrespect for the majority of the Guyanese people.
He was in fact saying that the people had a right to let him and his colleagues continue disposing of public funds in any manner they saw fit. To this day, after six years, we are still to get an account of the money spent during the floods of 2005. We are also to get an account of receipts from Cricket World Cup 2007.
The Ministry over which he presided delivered the most substandard contracts at the highest cost.
On one occasion when Kaieteur News asked searching questions about some of the expenditure his Ministry undertook, he took reporters on a trip to Parika Backdam, showed them one bridge then told his people to leave them there. He was scheduled to take them on a tour of every project being undertaken in Region Three.
But back to the situation. The government must be prepared to justify its every action. There is another upside to all this. Public events would be more meaningful. I look forward to seeing all the political leaders in one place for Mashramani, for civic events, and even sharing the joys of Christmas.
We now have a chance to fashion a new culture and ensure that we do not return to the days when one political party lorded it over the nation.

---

---