Struggling in a “donkey-cart” economy

Jun 10, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

No one is born popular. Popularity is earned based on one’s actions or positions. In a recent survey of citizens in several countries, Pope Francis, the 79-year-old Argentinean, has been considered more popular than US President Barack Obama, and the rest of the world’s leaders. The spiritual leader of the more than one billion Catholics worldwide, is popular because of his spiritual leadership, refreshing messages and inspiration to humanity. Even some atheists are impressed by his good deeds, especially toward the poor and the downtrodden.

Pope Francis’ leadership transcends the Catholic religion. He is admired by a majority of people from different religious affiliations from across various regions. The choice of the people sends a clear message to leaders about current perceptions and expectations of them. It addresses a deep public yearning for good and visionary leaders against a prevailing backdrop of diminishing trust and confidence in authoritative figures, political or otherwise. Pope Francis always seems to be honest and sincere. The opposite is true for most politicians.
In Guyana, the desire of the people is to have visionary leaders with strength of character, decency, honesty and a deep conviction and commitment to a particular set of values. In the past fifteen years, Guyana was saddled with dishonest, corrupt, greedy, vindictive and uncaring officials, and by extension, governments. The new government promised to dissociate itself from such practices. But that has been a hard promise to keep. Many in the government see themselves not as servants but the bosses of the people. And there have already been missteps, abuse of power, arrogance, scandals and alleged corrupt practices by some.
Living a Cadillac lifestyle in a “donkey-cart” economy shows that very little has changed from the past. The poor continued to be marginalized, which suggests that those in authority do not intend to practice what they preach. There has been no fundamentally different approach in leadership today than in the past, because some in the government have not rejected the trappings of absolute power and the princely opulence associated with previous administrations.
We essentially have leaders who are prepared to just talk the talk but not walk the walk. The end result is the neglect of the poor and the lower working class who continue to be marginalized economically. The PPP was defeated after being in power for twenty-three years because it often said one thing and then did the exact opposite; mistakenly believing somehow that it would continue to get away with it.
Living in a globalized and technological world has opened up unprecedented access to information to Guyanese who are now demanding much higher expectations from those in authority. They are carefully scrutinizing almost every action of the government and are making their opinions known. They are no longer as passive as they were in the past.
It is true that leaders are always judged by the extent to which they match words with actions, which explains why actions speak louder than words. In truth, promises are basically comforts to fools. There is a wide disparity between the promises and actions of the government, which has resulted in a loss of public trust and confidence.
Unfortunately, as we opined, honesty is a quality that is rarely associated with politicians, yet the ruling elite seem bewildered why many among us have a generally negative view of their stewardship. Many of these public officials have to begin the process of reshaping their unflattering images. But some have waged a war against the people for criticizing or disagreeing with their style of governance by labeling them the “chattering class.”
It will be difficult for the government to win over those people and others who are desperately struggling to make ends meet in a donkey-cart economy.

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2 thoughts on “Struggling in a “donkey-cart” economy”

Emile_Mervin June 10, 2016 at 12:54 am

I keep saying that the problem with Jagdeo was not just the greed, vindictiveness and corruption, but the tuning out of voices calling for him to stop and change course. Today, he is leading an Opposition party that was guaranteed to hold on to power because of its majority ethnic support base.

The coalition, which came to power on a wave of change from Jagdeoism, appears to be tuning out the very voices that continue to call for it to stop and change course.

Unless the coalition genuinely changes course, it could wind up again in the Opposition benches. Or it rig future elections to retain power, which could explain any rejection of the voices calling for it to stop and change course.

There have been missteps, but the most pronounced is the apparent theft of the US$5m in GT&T shares. Granger revoked Brian Tiwari’s Business Advisor appointment and many applauded him, but Granger has gone completely silent on the status of the US$5m.
Arthur Young June 10, 2016 at 12:39 pm

The cadillac lifestyle of the top brass is damaging the donkey cart springs. The cart needs a cartwright to make the cart right.

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