WITH WHOM IS THE AFC NEGOTIATING?

Oct 26, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The new formulation being advanced for the filling of positions within a future APNU+AFC government may appear to be progressive. But under closer scrutiny it’s a recipe for disaster.
It is now being proposed that all six of the coalition parties can nominate persons for Ministerial posts. This may seem progressive and democratic but it is far from so because in the final analysis it is one person, the President, who has to make the choice.
And he can very well ignore those nominations. The Leader of the Opposition knows all too well what happens when nominations are made to the President.
The PNCR is up to its usual tricks. It is trying to spew division between the AFC and the other members of the APNU. The PNCR it is dangling a fictional carrot, the idea that the six parties can all nominate Prime Ministerial and Ministerial candidates.
The AFC should not fall for that trap. It is part of a divide and rule tactic, an old trick of trade.
None of the six parties to the coalition has any assurance that they will be given anything. Coalitions revolve around the division of spoils. People may want to idealize that coalitions are about having common programmes and shared governance. But those things mean very little unless the parties to the coalition negotiate a pact which determines which party will get what.
This happens in post-election coalitions and is even more important in pre-election coalition. No credible third party is going to go into an election as part of a coalition without knowing beforehand just what it is going to get depending on the outcome of the elections.
In 2015, the AFC entered into a pre-election coalition with five other parties – one large party and four miniscule others. The AFC which had previously indicated that it would be dead meat if it entered into a coalition with either the PPPC or the PNCR broke from its traditional independent stance and aligned itself with the APNU based on guarantees of 40% of the seats in Cabinet and the National Assembly, the Prime Minister position and, for reasons of ensuring ethnic security, the post of Minister of Public Security.
The AFC cannot expect to go to its supporters now with an empty slate. It has to know beforehand its entitlements after the elections, that is, how the spoils are going to be divided. The AFC would lose credibility and more support if it goes to the electorate with a message that at the end of the elections, all six parties will make nominations, including the President’s party, and then the President will decide.
This is the same six-for-nine which was tried with the Leader of the Opposition. The President wanted to nominate persons on the list to be submitted by the Leader of the Opposition and then he would choose from that list. Whom do you think he would have chosen on the list which includes persons nominated by himself? Who do you think is more likely to be chosen if all the parties, including the PNCR have to nominate persons for Ministerial posts? This is a hair-brained proposal which should be dismissed without warranting any consideration.
The AFC has been loyal lapdog of the APNU over the past four years. It has done the APNU’s bidding. It has been kicked around like a political football. Yet, it did not file for divorce.
It is now being snubbed for the post of Prime Minister which it feels it is entitled. The AFC says that this is non-negotiable but the PNCR does not appear to share this position. It is seeking to wrest the position from the AFC.
The AFC should consider with whom it is negotiating. It is supposed to negotiating with five other parties, including the PNCR. But it seems as if those parties have given the PNCR unlimited freedom of action to negotiate with the AFC. It is almost as if these parties have no say in the configuration of which they will be expected to be a part.
Those parties should say whether they are part of the negotiations. They should indicate just what mandate they gave to the PNCR to negotiate. One of the parties the WPA should say whether it has any input into the negotiations and if it agrees with the PNCR that all parties should be free to make nominations for Ministerial posts not excluding the Prime Minister slot.

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