POLITICAL POWER BECOMES ABSOLUTE WHEN BACKED BY ECONOMIC MIGHT

Dec 01, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Political power without economic power is useless. This is something that APNU and the opposition parties do not appreciate enough.
The history of the PNC, now the PNCR, the leading partner in APNU, is instructive as to how a political party can find itself beholden to those with economic power.
Burnham had recognised this deficiency and had hoped that by bringing over 80% of the economy under State control, he could have worked around this problem. It did not happen. The greatest beneficiaries of PNC rule was a small economic oligarchy which ended up making more money under the system of state control than they would have normally done under a free market enterprise.
The State system collapsed under the PNC, and because state enterprises became bankrupt under the misrule of the maximum party, the Desmond Hoyte administration was forced to sell off state enterprises and reduce the level of State involvement in the economy.
In other words, the PNC ran from the coffin straight into the hands of the jumbie. Instead of being able to back its political power with economic power, the PNC ended up, because of its mismanagement of the economy, the likes of which has never before been seen in the English-speaking Caribbean, handing back power to private economic forces that today command the greater share of economic power in the country.
The PPP was able to woo those who controlled economic power in the country. In fact, they came genuflecting and on bended knees to the PPP. One came with a fat donation to Cheddi Jagan who rejected him, because while he harboured no personal animosity towards the particular captain, he could never have condoned what was done to the ordinary man by those who made millions while the people suffered under the PNC.
The PPP in the end got the support of the powerful economic class. But it did a double-take on this class and created its own economic oligarchy, which today is gobbling up the economic space of the country.
One of the valuable national assets now in the hands of the new economic oligarchy is the electromagnetic spectrum that is used for public communication. The new oligarchy controls this resource and with this power at their fingertips, they can control the minds of citizens in ways that the opposition parties cannot begin to contemplate.
If the opposition parties believe that the actions of GINA and NCN are a problem, they have not as yet experienced what those who presently control cable licences will be capable of.
A great deal of fuss is being made about television and radio licences. And there is ample justification in the concerns about fairness and transparency. There is equally merit in the concerns that those granted these licences are gaining a head start through which they can corner the market that utilises these media. But television and radio are not the real shebang.
The real shebang is cable. The market for cable is growing. More and more people are signing on to cable, which is presently dominated by certain players from the new oligarchy. Cable will within five years totally displace television and radio.
The cable companies will also command internet, and the government has gifted to these companies a larger market through the one laptop per family project. Those who receive the free laptops will be entitled to one year’s free internet, but at the end of that year they will have to pay, and this creates a market of ninety thousand clients, in addition to the thousands already using internet. With this market, they will make billions of dollars each year, which will allow them to graduate to their next target market, the more lucrative and prosperous telephone services.
This is why everyone should be concerned about the telecommunication spectrum and its seizure by the new oligarchy. With the power of cable, the power of the internet and the power of telephone services, the owners of cable licences will dominate the electromagnetic spectrum. This control carries immense power. That power when put behind the political party of their choice, will mean that the lucky party will never lose political power, because in modern day politics, regardless of what the puritans believe, money talks and ‘you know what’ walks.

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POLITICAL POWER BECOMES ABSOLUTE WHEN BACKED BY ECONOMIC MIGHT

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POLITICAL POWER BECOMES ABSOLUTE WHEN BACKED BY ECONOMIC MIGHT

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