The WPA has served its purpose

Sep 05, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The WPA is politically blind. It is not seeing clearly the political smoke-signals which are emerging from within the government and which are indicating the marginalization of the non-PNCR parties in the coalition government.
The Ministry of Education, which then has responsibility for youth and culture, was handed to the Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine of the Working People’s Alliance. That Ministry was about to implement a major internationally funded programme when the decision was taken to remove the minister and elevate the junior Minister to assume responsibility for the Ministry at the same time that the Ministry of the Presidency took control of the reform process.
At the same time, a second PNCR Minister assumed responsibility for youth and culture which now falls the Ministry of the Presidency.
The Ministry of the Presidency has already carved out the immigration duties from the public security portfolio and handed it to a PNCR person. Raphael Trotman was relieved of the environmental portfolio which now falls under the Ministry of the Presidency. And now that the British have produced their Magnus Opus on the security sector, it seems only obvious that this too will be taken away from the Minister of Public Security.
The writing is on the wall for the WPA. Burnham had no use for the United Force in the middle of his first term. By 1966, differences had begun to emerge. By 1968, Burnham decided that he was no longer going to have anything to do with coalitions. The present group of Burnhamites is more refined. They also need the other coalition parties to win political power. But the PNCR has never been comfortable with anything other than total control. It cannot operate any other way. It has slowly been cutting the ground from under the feet of its coalition parties.
The WPA is being used as window dressing by the PNCR. The PNCR has no uses for the WPA leaders, except Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine. Having a high profile East Indian and one from the party which accused the PNC of killing its co-leader Walter Rodney, was a means of showing the world that the PNCR is not like the old PNC. Roopnaraine brought a certain credibility to the APNU. The PNCR is interested in having Roopnaraine and not any other WPA leader. This is why when Dr. Roopnaraine submitted his resignation recently after meeting with the WPA, he was asked to withdraw it, which he did, after meeting with the President. Is the WPA blind?
The PPP had, just before it demitted office, appointed a National Economic Council to be headed by former President Bharrat Jagdeo. The coalition government when it took office announced the establishment of a similar body which would have included Drs. Clive Thomas and Maurice Odle.
Nothing has been heard of this body. It was just a form of window dressing even though some economic commentators are firm in their conviction that if there is any Minister who needs help at this time it is the Minister of Finance.
The WPA gambled its credibility by joining with the parties which constitute the APNU. The WPA must have felt betrayed that the Commission of Inquiry into the death of its co-leader, Walter Rodney, was short-circuited by the very government of which it is part. The PNCR had voted in support of a motion in the National Assembly calling for an investigation into the death of Rodney.
The WPA must have been shocked that the PNCR turned around and, without involving the WPA in its decision, aborted the COI. The WPA has never explained whether its representative in government protested that decision within Cabinet. It has never said whether that decision was discussed by Cabinet.
The WPA must ask itself, if after a few months ago, it protested about lack of consultations within APNU, whether anything has changed. Nothing has changed and nothing will change. The WPA does not have the political numbers of be treated with any seriousness. And judging from the way the AFC is being treated also, it soon may also join the WPA as doormats of the PNCR.

1 thoughts on “The WPA has served its purpose”

Kassem_B September 5, 2017 at 2:09 pm

‘The WPA has served its purpose’
Not yet
The Professor from Arizona is still asleep and hitting the PPP for lots of sixes each time he goes to print unaware that the game is over.
Maybe someone need to remind him that these sixes do not count when the game is over