The paymaster calls the shots

Nov 17, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – In one of yesterday’s newspapers, it was reported that the PPP/C paid more than G$60M to a lobbying firm during its election bid. The cost would have substantially increased over the original sum.
That sum has been paid simply to tidy relations with the United States. However, that cost would have ballooned because the APNU+AFC’s attempt to rig the elections would have required extra work.
The PPP/C pockets are not deep. It takes money to run a mass-based political party and PPP/C usually receives a windfall during election campaigns but it has to rely on donations and fundraising.
The PPP/C once had a business arm – GIMPEX – but that went up in flames during the protests which followed the 1997 elections. Since then the PPP/C has become almost entirely dependent on its financiers, donations and fundraisers.
The election was costly and would have left the party cash-strapped. The PNC/R knows this all too well. After an election, the PNC/R is often forced to dispose of assets in order to cover its debts. It is believed that the D’Urban Park fiasco, was part of a plan to help the party cover its 2015 election expenses.
Because political parties’ pockets are not deep, these parties are at the mercy of their financiers. The G$60M which was paid for the lobbying services, would have had to come from a specific financier. That financier is going to knock on doors, if that has not happened already. That person is not going to spend that type of money because he or she loves the PPP/C. No, that person or person is looking for a payback.
The financiers who fund election campaigns do so as an investment, not out of support for the party. During election time, financiers hedge their bets. They usually back one or two of the horses in the election race and whatever they spend, they come looking for the payback after the election.
The financiers do nothing for free. They are investors and the monies they place into the political kitty must eventually yield a return.
It happens with all governments. A good way to know when a financier is being given a golden handshake, is to closely look at certain measures in the Budget. And then to ask who benefits from these measures. You can have a fair idea of when something is for a payback when you look to see how many will benefit and if the benefit will be restricted or intended to give some investor a foothold in a sector.
During the Cold War, local political parties received support from foreign government. Declassified documents have confirmed what was always known: that Forbes Burnham was on the payroll of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that his party was bankrolled at one time, by covert funding from the CIA. The PPP would have also been in receipt of funding from its friends in the Communist world. Declassified documents also reveal how sections of the labour movement were financed by the CIA. Other political parties would have also been funded by foreign interests.
It takes a lot of money to run an election campaign. And that money often has to come from somewhere. These days it is financiers. The average citizens has nothing much to give to any political party. People talk about supporting small parties but when the time comes to push their hands in the pockets, it is as if they develop some form of disability.
Small parties, like the large parties, therefore often have to seek financial backers. And those backers don’t do anything for free. They want to control what small parties do and say both during and after the elections.
This is the dilemma facing small parties. They cannot get going without money, large stacks of money. And that money cannot be mobilized by the ordinary man. It has to come from a financier. But any assistance from the big backers comes with strings attached.
Until such time as ordinary citizens are prepared to finance their political parties, large and small, and keep them away from the tentacles of rich businessmen and financiers, politics will always be a trade-off: political power for favours down-the-line.
Under such an arrangement, the small man is helpless. He or she has no influence with the government or within the parties which continue to fool the ordinary citizens that they have their interests at heart.
The paymaster calls the shots. Money talks and principle walks…when it comes to politics.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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