POLITICS AND HYPOCRISY IN GUYANA

Jun 02, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The hypocrisy of Guyanese can at times be unbearable. A number of Guyanese have taken to blogs to condemn the Guyana government over the decision by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to pull the Third Test Match in the forthcoming test series from Guyana.
After the passage of the controversial Cricket Administration Bill, this column had predicted that Guyana will face sanctions from the WICB. This column had indicated that the hosting of the test match against New Zealand as well as the three scheduled matches in the Caribbean Premier League which were to be held in Guyana would most likely be affected.
At that time, there were very few dissenting voices. The main reason for this was that the Cricket Administration Bill enjoyed the support of the country’s two largest parliamentary groupings, the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).
These two parties voted in support of the Bill brought to the National Assembly by the government. The Alliance for Change (AFC) did not support the Bill. It was one of the few times that the AFC and APNU had broken their usual unity on legislative matters. But even this was not enough to squeeze a critical comment out of the multitudes who love to take to the social media blogs to condemn the government. There were few condemnations of the decision of the government to move ahead with the Cricket Administration Bill even though it was clear that the very basis of having to have such a Bill no longer existed following a ruling by the Court of Appeal.
Once the country’s two main political parties support a measure, criticism is muted. And this is what happened in the case of the passage of the Cricket Administration Bill.  There were few dissenting voices.
The passage of that Bill has caused worry within the West Indies Cricket Board because in their estimation it constitutes political interference in the administration of cricket. The WICB did the right thing is engaging the President into not assenting to the Bill. While it is not clear whether assent has been had, the West Indies Cricket Board cannot be kept holding indefinitely or can they be seen as allowing a government interfere in the management of West Indies cricket.
As such, the WICB has taken the bull by the horns and has decided that in so far as Guyana is concerned, it cannot be business as usual. This has led to a storm of criticism of the Guyana government. But very few are pointing fingers at the government’s co-conspirator in the passage of the Cricket Administration Bill. Very few are criticizing APNU for supporting the Bill. This is the nature of political hypocrisy in Guyana.
APNU has to take some responsibility for the sanctions that Guyana now faces and is likely to face in respect to the matches in the forthcoming Caribbean Premier League. The government would have been unable to pass that Bill without the support of one or both of the parliamentary opposition parties. The government does not have a majority in the National Assembly and it was APNU’s support that allowed it to pass this Bill which has now invited sanctions from the WICB. APNU which lent its support for the passage of the contentious legislation must therefore share blame for what has happened. It must explain to the Guyanese people what was the basis of this support and why it did not, in light of previous action taken by the WICB, envisage that sanctions would have been forthcoming.
Similarly, APNU and the AFC cannot escape culpability for the non- passage of amendments to the Anti- Money Laundering and the Countering of the Financing of Terrorism Act which has seen Guyana being subject to being blacklisted as a potential threat to the integrity of the international financial system. This blacklisting is a sanction and therefore APNU and the AFC cannot deflect responsibility for this action solely towards the government. It was both APNU and the AFC that are frustrating the passage of the necessary amendments and they are doing so because they want to extract political concessions from the government.
Guyana was also sanctioned on another issue. The Caribbean Court of Justice has given judgment against Guyana in relation to the country’s environmental tax. The government had tried at a very unholy hour but tried nonetheless to pass legislation to remove the discriminatory nature of the tax against importers. But the Opposition vetoed such attempts. Yet they do not wish to share any responsibility for the fact that the country is now saddled with a US$6B judgment.
But do not expect the supporters of the Opposition to apportion blame to APNU and the AFC on these issues. No! The fault, as far as they are concerned, for the cricket sanctions, for CFATF blacklisting and for the judgment of the Caribbean Court of Justice is solely the responsibility of the Guyana government. That is the measure of the political hypocrisy that exists in Guyana.

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