Latest update December 22nd, 2024 1:38 AM
Dec 14, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Every time a new President has been elected to Guyana, the population has generally sought to give that person the opportunity to establish themselves. In short, the people, in spite of any preconceived notions or opinions they may have had about the incoming president, have been prepared to adopt a wait- and-see attitude towards the new president.
Even when it came to President Janet Jagan who was virtually hounded into retirement, there was a large section of the Guyanese population who were prepared to give her a chance and to judge her based on what she did.
This decision to allow a new president to establish his own record and style and to judge him based on what he does while in office is part of the goodwill which the Guyanese people have always extended to all presidents.
Even when President Desmond Hoyte became president under elections which were described as more crooked than barbed wire, the Guyanese people were prepared to give him a chance, and he did immediately try to distance himself from some of the highly unpopular policies of his predecessor.
President Donald Ramotar assumes the presidency under slightly different circumstances. There is no majority rule, but he too will most likely enjoy the goodwill of the Guyanese people during his early months. And it is in these early months that the Guyanese people will be looking at how he will govern, the sort of policies that he will be prepared to implement and his style of managing the country.
So far he has signaled that the party to which he belongs is not going to be marginalized from the government. While his choices for ministers are clearly limited by his party’s list of candidates for the elections, he has been swift and decisive. There were many who may have expected brand new faces, but this could only have occurred if the individuals concerned were on the party’s list. Since the candidate lists for the elections retained all the old ministers, then there was clearly a limitation on the number of new faces who could have been brought on board.
In the next few months, the Guyanese people will be paying keen attention to the president to see what changes he is going to make and particularly those that relate to the distancing himself from some of the controversial policies of his predecessor.
The president has clearly read into the feelings of the Guyanese people and has appointed a special minister to deal with the issue of government procurement and accountability. That minister will no doubt be looking at ways and means of improving the overall system of transparency, including perhaps recommendations about what needs to be done in relation to certain contracts.
A great deal of additional political goodwill can accrue to the president if he takes a firm decision regarding the award of future contracts. For example, the practice of Cabinet or Tender Board waivers for certain major contracts should be immediately discontinued. And this will send a positive signal to all concerned that the days of controversy in the award of government contracts are numbered.
The president needs of course a few weeks to settle in. He is seasoned political campaigner who perhaps is best suited of all of the principal leaders of the ruling party to genuinely and meaningfully engage with the opposition candidates. He has always been an approachable and amenable individual who has built friends across the political divide even in the worst of times.
As a matured person he is also likely to bring a more thoughtful approach to government and to the process of governance. He has so far been honest and forthright about some of the challenges that he expects to face.
Long before the elections, he had signaled that he was willing to work with the opposition parties. The overall outcome of the elections now forces him to be true to this pledge.
He is expected as most leaders to face some amount of internal criticism from within his party as he tries to put some distance between himself and the more controversial aspects of his predecessor’s record.
More importantly, the people will be looking to see whether he will turn out to be The Donald or Uncle Donald, the president more for the rich or the president for all Guyana. His humbleness and simplicity of dress and manner so far suggests that he will be more for the poor than for the rich.
In the end, the goodwill will not last forever. The Guyanese people will demand change and change for the better. The opposition will also try to press their demands.
It will be an interesting first few months and this early period could well indicate how the new president is going to be judged.
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