The AFC is now a cuss word and a cuss bird

Nov 08, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The AFC is being put to clean up the mess that is being made by the APNU. And the AFC seems all too comfortable with this role.
The AFC was put to clean up the Sussex Street bond fiasco. And it shamelessly did so instead of pressing for serious sanctions to be taken against those involved.
The AFC was called upon, and responded favorably, to defending the unilateral appointment by the President of a Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission. The AFC should have washed its hands of this decision since it was disrespected by not being a part of the decision.
The AFC had promised that it would have been independent within the coalition. It is clearly not independent and its positions are clearly not being respected. The AFC has now become indistinguishable from the APNU.
This is not what the supporters of the AFC voted for. The AFC promised that it would be independent in the government but it has turned out to be indifferent to what is taking place within the government.
The AFC is supposed to be protecting the democratic rule in Guyana. How can the AFC be defending the actions taken by the government?
The priority of the AFC within the government should have been to protect democratic rule, promote transparency and accountability and constitutional reform to ensure that executive authority is reposed in Cabinet and not in the President.
The AFC has failed on all three fronts. Its actions do not suggest that it understands the dangers of the government becoming undemocratic. The AFC should not have allowed the Local Government Commission to have taken so long.
The AFC is under no obligation under the principle of collective responsibility to go along with the President’s decision. The decision was not collective; it was the President’s and therefore the AFC is not obligated to go along with any decision in which it had no input.
It is not as if, also, that the AFC was divided on this issue. The AFC was not consulted on the issue.
As a third party, the AFC would have had the best chance of wresting political power from the two political behemoths, the PNCR and the PPPC. But the leaders of the AFC, like so many others who defected in the past, did not have the patience to continue the struggle which had seen a third party gain 10% of the votes of the electorate.
No other third party has ever done this and here was an opportunity in 2015 to perhaps once and for all cement its place as serious challenger to both of the main parties but all the AFC could have done was become struck by the ‘ love bug’ and find itself in the arms of the AFC.
The AFC is now being violated by the APNU. It is being put to the front to try to rescue the image of the coalition government which is stumbling from one mistake to the next.
The AFC is not without influence. The survival of the coalition depends on the support of the AFC. If the AFC withdraws just one or two votes in the National Assembly, the coalition will fall. Why therefore is the AFC not exercising its clout within the government?
The AFC must use Cabinet for negotiations, not for discussions alone. It must go to Cabinet with a position and fight for the change that it claims to represent.
Part of the problem facing the party is its misuse of the balance of power that it held in the parliament after the 2011 elections. It should have used that to change the political culture. Instead it jumped into bed with the APNU since it was obsessed with unseating the PPPC rather than setting the stage for the emergence of a more democratic political culture.
There was once a civic movement called GUARD which fell victim to the same sickness. GUARD was supposed to be a reform movement. It was created on the basis that a change of government at the time would not promote national development unless there was reform of the political culture. GUARD however lost its bearings and instead of sticking to reform began to try to dictate the political winds. It ended up disintegrating.
The AFC is now disintegrating. Its Canadian support group has served it an ultimatum. Many of those who financed the AFC locally are disgusted with the group. They will not support them anymore. The AFC did not obtain the support it did to become a sidekick of the APNU.
The AFC is now sadly being bandied as a political expletive. What a shame? What a disgrace!

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News