STRANGE JUSTIFICATIONS

Oct 09, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

“Look how the roads looking nice! Look how nice the bridges looking! The place is clean and looking nice!” These are the reactions of supporters of the ruling coalition to the clean-up works which are being taken by the new government.
Some of them are so excited they can pee themselves. They are happy, so happy. One is not sure whether the happiness is because of what is being done or because of the fact that it is being done by a new government and not by the old one.
People are desperate. They are desperate to find something to show that there is good happening under the new government.
People are viewing what is being done by City Hall as confirmation that there has been positive change since the new government took office. They are getting excited by the early clean-up efforts of the City.
They are not bothered at all whether the narrow revenue base of City Hall can sustain these works without excessive government financial assistance. The supporters of the new government are in a trance trying to convince themselves that a great deal of progress has been achieved under APNU+AFC.
They have reason to try to convince themselves. They want to make sure that what they are seeing is reality and not an illusion. There is not much else to look at, not many other pluses other than the Independence Monument and the white washing of the bridges.
The VAT has not been slashed. The promised significant salary increases have not materialized. There is no major plan unveiled to grow the economy by the 9% that we were hearing about during the election campaign. Crime is on the increase and violent crime is uncontrollable. Domestic violence is on the increase. Businesses are suffering and drugs and gold are apparently still being smuggled out of the country. No wonder then, being getting excited about the weeding of parapets, cleaning of drains, the patching of roads and most of all the whitewashing of bridges.
I am dreaming of a whitewashed Christmas. Everything is being whitewashed, even salary increases for members of Cabinet. We are told that there is no need to apologize for the increases. Nobody was asking for an apology. A simple rationale would have done just fine. If we can whitewash all the bridges before Christmas and if the rainy season can delay itself until after the holidays, perhaps the whitewash will last.
If the whitewash does not last, a second or third coat will have to be applied. This whitewash has to last until next May when Guyana will in order of priority celebrate the first anniversary and the 50th year since Independence.
Guyana Independence anniversary is also being whitewashed. The PNC never gave a hang about Independence. It was never a holiday in their time. They preferred Republic Day. The PNC marginalized Independence Day. They had no celebrations on that day. But now that they have the opportunity to use it as a celebratory point for their own election victory, they have suddenly become converts to Independence. May-June is the rainy season and there will have to plenty of whitewashing going around for the celebrations that will be held in Guyana.
The supporters of APNU+ AFC voted for change. They wanted change. They disagreed with the way things were being done under the PPP and they said that they needed change and this is why they voted the coalition into power.
It is therefore something of a surprise, then, to read people, rational people, going to the defense of the government when it is subject to criticism of doing the same things that the PPP did, such as not publicly advertising certain positions and paying themselves far benefits.
The loyal supporters instead of either remaining quiet or turning a blind eye to the transgressions of the new government actually have the temerity to try to defend the government on the grounds that the PPP did the same or worse.
Now how can that be change? How can the woeful standards of the PPP which the supporters of APNU and the AFC were against and which forced them to vote for change, suddenly become the basis for justifying what is taking place.
Perhaps this is all part of the effects of the illusion that is being spun, the illusion of improvements by daubing whitewash paint over a bridge that needs replacing.

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