Political backwardness that is simply incredible

Apr 12, 2013 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The Office of the President last week wrote to the African Cultural Development Association (ACDA) to come in for discussion on the 2013 budget. I have no knowledge of the President writing other stakeholders. I only know of ACDA. But it has been reported that the President did have discussions with other important organizations last week on the budget. I am assuming, then, that many stakeholders were invited and not ACDA only.
I was told by very reliable sources that ACDA declined the dialogue. It had to be an act of extreme insensitivity or unadulterated arrogance to ask an institution like ACDA to go to the Office of the President for budget talks after the budget was officially presented to the National Assembly.
The first thing that would have come out of the mouths of the ACDA delegation was why did you choose not to negotiate with us on the location of the 1823 monument but you want to talk to us about your budget?
Some may find it difficult to accept based on their political perspectives that in writing certain organizations to confabulate on a budget that is already laid out in Parliament, the presidency has displayed an attitude of deplorable insolence. As late as Sunday, this monumental contempt showed its face at the Plaisance Community Centre ground. The Government chose to send a Minister born in Plaisance to mollify villagers over the location, on their ground, for one of the e-governance towers.
One has to be silly to think that the reasoning behind this move didn’t involve contempt for the Plaisance people. Why send someone from Plaisance? Why not a persuasively competent negotiator with a good track record of getting results? Why must he/she be from Plaisance? Why must a Berbician politician from the government benches go to Berbice to discuss the justification of the tariff on the Berbice Bridge? Would it not be better to send one of your politicians who is good at explaining the strategy behind Government’s investment policies?
The Office of the President sent Juan Edghill because the thinking went like this: “Man, you from Plaisance; go and try to persuade them; they will listen to one of their own.” It turned out the opposite way. I was there right in front of Edghill last Sunday and his Plaisance birth meant nothing to the villagers.
No one from the Government, even if from Plaisance, could have convinced them. They did not want the tower on their ground.
Maybe another negotiator would have done a better job. First, Edghill told the gathering that the relocation of the tower to the site where the old radio station transmitter was could not be open for negotiation because it was already earmarked for construction of the home of the Caricom Secretary-General.
That angered the gathering, because too many alternative plots are available to build a house for the CARICOM head – including at the back of the Secretariat itself where Eddie Boyer is building an upper middle class housing scheme.
The second mistake of Edghill, which reveals his abominable lack of diplomatic skills, was not reported by the press. In front of the villagers he openly accused me of inciting the villagers then exclaimed that I have nothing to offer them. This brought rage and anger with shouts such as “Edghill, you aren’t giving us anything but you taking from us, you taking our land.”
The inescapable conclusion is that the presidency felt it could have placated the people of Plaisance by sending a Plaisance man. Looked at from any angle, this is what Guyanese refer to in common parlance as “eye pass.”
It is the same “eye pass” with the invitation to ACDA. It is an incredibly stupid and arid government that Guyana has. How could any set of rulers take one calendar year to compose the national budget of the country, table it in Parliament, then write stakeholders to extract their ideas about it? Why after and not before?
The answer is “eye pass.” You feel so contemptuous of your citizens that you can lock them out of consultations then invite them to discuss what you have already done. In other words, you kill a woman’s husband then you ask her to discuss ways you can save him.
It may sound facetious, but the act of the Office of the President seeking the cooperation of national organizations on the budget, after the Government would have laid it in the National Assembly, reveals the extremely offensive nature of the PPP leadership. Under no circumstances are these people prepared to dialogue and consult with the opposition, even when they need opposition support to prevent instability.

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Political backwardness that is simply incredible

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