The APNU+AFC in power: Horizons of disbeliefs

Mar 12, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – I got an email from a Guyanese who is known throughout the length and breadth of Guyana but resides overseas. He emailed to ask if I could explain what was taking place at UG based on the last line of my column yesterday. He confessed that he follows mostly the macro-political issues in Guyana so he didn’t really pay attention to matters at UG.
My description to him led me to write this column. After replying to him, the idea came to write this piece about how monumental were the mistakes of the APNU+AFC that caused them to lose the 2020 election. When I described how difficult it was for the Council of the University to ascertain the salary of the last Vice Chancellor (VC), the idea of this article was born.
I believe the APNU and AFC leaders are going to spend the rest of their lives in mental agony over the thought of what could have been. In a country with a prodigious oil discovery in which related investments and oil revenues could shape a meaningful future, they simply threw it away.
It is my contestation that if those monumental mistakes weren’t made, the APNU+AFC could have won the last general election and could have been set to win more contests in the future. The rest of the argument here will be outlined in the framework of what I call logical expectations.
The citizenry wanted a 2015 non-PPP government to be the opposite of what they saw the PPP doing in the past. Instead an insane pathway was followed by the APNU+AFC that the Guyanese people found incredible. The APNU+AFC’s excesses, insensitivities, stupidities, corruptibility, arrogance and illogical policies far exceeded those of the PPP.
The PPP won the election because of one factor that was huge and graphic – people no longer thought that the PNC and the AFC were of better quality than the PPP. Three post-2015 configurations can be cited: 1 – The AFC voters regretted their 2015 choice and reverted back to the PPP; 2- Amerindians were not impressed with the PNC and AFC leaders; 3- A quota of mixed race and African voters either stayed home or voted for the PPP and some small parties. It must be remembered that the small parties pulled almost 9,000 votes among themselves.
Let’s look at the insane pathway referred to above. Space will not allow for a comprehensive account but since the defeat of the APNU+AFC, I have examined some essential causes that led to the election defeat. This article then, is a continuation.
When the gentleman asked me about UG, immediately the VC’s salary controversy came to mind. Looking back at it, one can clearly see the seeds of election defeat were on the horizon. UG was always a hotbed of raging controversies from presidents Burnham to Ramotar. It was silly not to put democratization on the top of your UG agenda. On the contrary, the UG administration under Granger was the most undemocratic than any dispensation under any PPP president.
It was unbelievable arrogance on the part of the Granger regime to refuse to disclose the salary of the VC to the people who are legally entitled to know that – the Council. The Council employs the VC. They are his bosses. The VC takes instructions from the Council. That imbroglio had to generate deep chagrin in UG employees who thought the APNU+AFC leaders would be more understanding. We will never know how many of them voted against the PNC in the 2020 poll.
I still believe that the closure of the sugar estates was a judgment that no government could have avoided. Most intelligent people in Guyana knew the industry was no longer viable in the form it was in the late 20th century. In what may possibly be the most macabre policy mistake in politics anywhere in the world, the APNU+AFC simply closed the estates and said that was that.
How could politicians who want you to vote for them be so stupid? In laying off 5,000 sugar workers, you were devastating more than 20,000 family members. How could you have hoped to win the next election with that Draculean misdirection? A commonsensical approach was to cushion their income loss through another form of livelihood. Either put money into the birth of another industry (for example, aqua-culture, farming, etc.) or give the lands to the retrenched workers.
What was amazing was that Moses Nagamootoo was hoping the same victims vote back for him in 2020. Clive Thomas, the “great” economist was in charge of GuySuCo at the time of the estate closures. It is time PNC supporters open their eyes.

(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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