NOT SO SMART POLITICS BY THE AFC

Apr 21, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Alliance for Change has suffered a huge dent to its credibility because of its brainless proposal to make deep cuts to three Government Ministries namely, the Ministry of Housing and Water, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce.
The AFC obviously received bad advice on this matter. It should never again allow itself to be misled into making a proposal such as it made, without having a sound and rational basis for so doing.
The AFC should have awaited the commencement of the debate on the Estimates of Expenditure for the three Ministries before advancing the suggestions that it intended to make deep cuts to the provisions for these ministries. It should never have adopted an arbitrary approach to the cuts.
It is clear that the AFC did not have sufficient information to allow it to rationally decide that more than 3 billion dollars needed to be pruned from the overall estimates. According to the Stabroek News of Wednesday April 18, 2012, the AFC had written to the Minister of Finance requesting the details of contract employment for the Office of the President, the Ministry of Finance, the Guyana Elections Commission, the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
There is no indication that the AFC ever received these details and therefore for it to proceed to suggest deep cuts to the estimates for three ministries is an admission that this decision was arbitrary.
If it did not have the information on contract employees within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, how then could it arrive at a figure as to how much to cut from the provisions for that Ministry. Suppose there were no “fat cats” within that ministry, then how is the AFC going to explain its decision?
That decision, obviously based on misguided advice, has left the AFC’s credibility seriously dented and moreso since the government was able to turn a large number of public employees against the AFC.
There was no need for the AFC to have acted precipitously. It could have opted to use the debate on the estimates to elicit answers about contract employees. It could have also done what APNU did and call for discussions with the government before the debate on the estimates started.
Instead it opted for high theatrics and grandstanding with the consequence that it has been exposed as a party that likes to flex its muscles but has very little to offer the Guyanese people in terms of practical suggestions.
It has now been upstaged by of all parties, APNU. And to add insult to injury it is now quite absurdly attempting to claim that had it not made the proposals that it did, pensioners would not have enjoyed the increase they will receive from May 1.
The AFC deserves no such credit. The credit has to go to APNU and the government.
APNU and the government are negotiating and the AFC has without foresight locked itself out of this process. It ought never to have followed poor advice; it ought never to have allowed itself to be in the present predicament.
Its constituents expected that it would have behaved responsibly and not attempted to flex its muscles when it should be negotiating and wresting concessions from the government.
The AFC is now a pitiful sight in front of an audience not lost on the ludicrousness of it all. This is a far cry, an ignominious decline from its stellar performance during the debate on the Budget itself when it had outshone all the other parties in the National Assembly.
It has lost a vital opportunity to make a difference in the spending priorities of the government this year. It now is not even going to be able to press for a reduction of the VAT by the 2% that it was calling for.
Instead of addressing its own shortcomings it is now attempting to be self-righteous by accusing APNU of betraying the people of Linden. APNU has done no such thing.
APNU knew that the preferential tariffs that were enjoyed by Lindeners which led to the average household in Linden using twice as much electricity as the average consumer in the rest of Guyana, is unsustainable.
APNU knows that it will invoke the displeasure of a great many Guyanese if its presses for the retention of these tariffs and as such it has sought to negotiate a wider package of benefits for its constituents.
This is not betrayal of Linden. This is smart politics and APNU has opted to be smart rather than be like the AFC, not so smart.

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NOT SO SMART POLITICS BY THE AFC

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