The collapse that was not foreseen

Dec 23, 2018 Features / Columnists, My Column

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The die is cast. There must be elections within three months. All the attacks against the government for underperforming have come down to a no-confidence motion that at the start seemed unlikely to succeed. No one catered for a disgruntled member of the government team. And this disgruntled member pretty much kept his views to himself until it was time for him to vote on the motion.
Needless to say, his action has caused disappointment in the hearts of many and joy in the hearts of an equal number. The opposition People’s Progressive Party was not prepared to sit in the opposition with the coming of oil. Its leaders want to be in control of the oil money.
I have not analysed the presentations in the House on Friday, but I do know that the result proved that a coalition is always an unholy alliance. Sardonically, one must realize that the Alliance For Change did help effect the change in government in 2015. Three years later, it helped remove the very government.
Complacency might have been the cause. Was the party in close contact with its parliamentarians? I doubt it, although Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo claimed that he and Charrandass Persaud were at a social function rubbing shoulders on Sunday.
Did he heed the intelligence provided to him? Certainly not, because he would have known that Persaud was a shadowy figure within his party. Both Nagamootoo and Ramjattan claimed that the man never voiced any discontent, but this man has friends and he did speak with many of them.
It was also established that he was hobnobbing with supporters of the PPP, but being Guyanese, we do not take those things for anything. We simply contend that a man can have friends, regardless of their political affiliation.
The deed is done, however. All eyes must focus on the impending General Elections. These elections have been described as the Mother of all elections by Finance Minister Winston Jordan. And he is right. When oil comes to the surface there will be money to do so many things.
There should be much better pay for public servants, money for massive infrastructure development, and a modicum of improvement for senior citizens.
Some of these things were already happening, and there was the promise of even more by the present government. None can fault the roads in the city. These were in such deplorable state for decades. Now people take them for granted.
Despite all the talk about slow business, cars are selling, shops are full, and once one has money, one can achieve anything. Because of the economy, people board airplanes like a shopper boarding a bus to the market. Such is the rate that hardly a plane leaves without a full load.
And to crown it off, people are coming home in increasing numbers, something that was missing up until recently.
There are mutterings about the failure of the Granger administration to prosecute people suspected of corrupt acts to the point that some of them raided the Treasury. I learnt that while there is evidence, it is difficult to get the person to court.
Further, the special prosecutors were not working. Many of them were friends with the people who are supposed to face the court. Should the government lose the elections, people would see a rash of prosecutions, even if these go nowhere, as has been the case in previous times.
The previous government was deemed to be very corrupt and very partial to those in the inner circle. Supporters of the new government wanted the same from their party, failing to realize that what is wrong at one time cannot be right at another. The result is that I have heard many of them saying that they will not vote when the elections are called.
I take my vote seriously. I learnt of the days when only property owners had the right to vote. They determined the fate of the rest of the population. Universal Adult Suffrage came and all got that right to vote. It was a right that was fought for. For me to throw that fight behind me would be a travesty.
But having said that, I cannot ignore the fact that there were people in the government who seemed to remove themselves from people with whom they once associated. People do not take kindly to being slighted. To get them back on track could be a Herculean task.
At present, a damper has been put on Christmas 2018. Up until Friday, the shops were filled with shoppers. The mood on the streets was upbeat; people were bent on having a most joyous Christmas, especially since many of them received pay increases that they were demanding.
One day later, it was as if the Grinch had stolen those people’s Christmas. The crowds had almost disappeared. It was as if people were now saving their money for the future, and I don’t blame them.
I remember Christmas 1997. The elections had just ended and there were protests. The then Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte said to his supporters that there would be no Christmas that year. Believe it or not, that was one of the least joyous Christmases.
Suffice it to say that the man who helped put the damper on Christmas is heading to Canada, if he is not there already. And should the PPP win the upcoming elections, one can expect that all the charges currently facing people would be dropped. The PPP would see to that. It happened before.
Those who were critical of Bharrat Jagdeo can expect a torrid time from his government. It had happened before. Government officials called places of employment and ordered them to terminate people deemed opposition elements. It mattered not that these were private places. After all, they had to import, and the government has a big say on imports.
People like me will do more than survive, because I am who I am, and my hands are clean. The coming months will be interesting.

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