Holding the government accountable

Mar 04, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Mr. Lenox Shuman, the Hon. Deputy Speaker of the House, has it right. The coalition opposition must stop reliving last year’s ugly elections, and make a start at “holding the government accountable” (KN, February 28). Though there is some discomfort with how Mr. Shuman has aligned himself and taken care of himself, it is inarguable that he is on the right track, and one, which the coalition should take to heart, and rouse itself from its slumber.
We had expected, and many in Guyana had harboured some reasonable hope, that Mr. Shuman and his fellow newcomers to Guyana’s snake infested political trenches would be that breath of fresh air, which represented the truly independent, the clearly neutral, and the doggedly outspoken. The expectation of many citizens, long disgusted with the lengthy record of both PPP and APNU+AFC leadership failures and betrayals, was that Mr. Shuman and his fellows would be difference makers, icebreakers, and spoilers. They have mostly disappointed, with one after the other of them helping themselves and feasting over what the cunning PPP leadership has extended to them. They have followed the well-beaten path of those who went before them: they have bargained with the devil, accepted gifts from those who have devastated the hopes and dreams of the peoples of this land. As such, they have all backed themselves into a corner, where they are unable to say so much as boo to the new government for the rising, but largely still unpublicized, tide of wrongdoings by current leaders since they returned to power.
In spite of all this, it is with some interest that we receive the Hon. Deputy Speaker’s timely call – a wise and constructive one – for the opposition to do its duty and step up to represent the citizens of this society who believed in it, and who stood for it. The opposition has been derelict in delivering on its obligations on a whole host of material issues, some of which we pinpoint at this time. At the top of the pile stand the government’s actions relative to its management of the nation’s oil. PPP leaders have promised a primrose path with oil and delivered thorns and thistles; or, in the more familiar local idiom ‘pimpla.’ There is no information sharing; only the ongoing silence that speaks to the sinister. The only thing of meaning that is shared with Guyanese is how many billions of dollars will be spent for this or that expensive project, and that some of it will have to be borrowed. It is our belief that it is much of that multi-billion-dollar 2021 budget that will have to be borrowed. The people who will be responsible for repaying the increased billions in debt burdens are being informed about that, and not much else.
While the new government has made a living in withholding from the Guyanese public need to know information, the opposition has been a lost cause in withholding its voice, its strength, and its believed powerful contributions that are all needed today like never before. The opposition has been a startling picture of disorganized indifference, infighting malaise, and leadership impotency. When all Guyana – not just its jaded and shell-shocked supporters – need for the opposition to be a viable presence not to be trifled with or messed around with, the group has been nothing but a burdensome albatross. Come to think of it, the coalition opposition has been like a certain situation that is now very well known to most Guyanese, both in the city and the country areas.
The opposition increasingly appears like one of those houses that used to have a large and busy family, but is today one which is empty and silent because the occupants, to use the local Creole, have ‘gone away.’ So, the house stands as a monument to abandonment, decay and disrepair. We invite our fellow Guyanese, especially coalition voters, to take a close and hard look at the state of the opposition and then decide for themselves, if what we say is not accurate, and extremely so. When the opposition conducts itself in this manner, it fails more than its disillusioned people. It fails all the people of this society. We urge it to engage in a thorough self-examination, if only to appreciate the magnitude of the huge disappointment that it has become in appearance and in spirit and reality.

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