Why did David say that coalition leaders must never have power again?

Apr 24, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Here are the words of David Hinds from his Facebook post that was sent to me. I have dealt with other aspects of this post (see my column – Thursday April 15, 2021, “Did the government this year try to bribe Dr. David Hinds?”); “I have had my difficulties with the Coalition in and out of government. I hope such people never again get near to political power.”
To the thousands who may vote for them again, I suppose David has an obligation to analyse these coalition misfits. But on reading that statement, confusions cascaded in my mind. Morality is and should be the driving force behind humans.
If we do not possess morality in some form no matter how diluted, the world will die; it simply cannot survive the Hobbesian state of nature. If David Hinds was in Region Five in September of last year when that 16-year-old girl was attacked during the mayhem of PNC rioters after the Cotton Tree murders of the two cousins, I have no doubt he would have tried to save her.
We have moral obligations to our fellow humans. So to the thousands of young people who will in 2025 vote for those very politicians that David believe should never see power again, he needs to elaborate. But more than that, he opens himself to serious questioning of his morality.
When did he discover that these coalition leaders are unfit for power? He campaigned to put them back in power. He and I had a choice of 10 opposition parties. I opted out of support for PPP, PNC and AFC. I chose Lenox Shuman’s party and telegraphed my thoughts through this page long before March 2, 2020. I voted for another party other than the PPP and APNU+AFC because I felt creating a minority government was a strategic option.
What direction David took? He campaigned for APNU+AFC and was in fact, an election candidate as he was in 2015. Now he tells Guyanese many APNU+AFC leaders are unfit to hold power again. Please tell us why? Did they steal from the treasury? Did they molest Guyana’s women folks? Did they lack compassion for the poverty of the poorer classes?
Since the coalition was PNC, AFC and WPA, David should do a compartmentalisation analysis. Which party he has in mind or is he collapsing all of them? If it is the latter, then WPA is in his focus. Since he, David, sits in the defunct executive of the WPA, he needs to settle with Walter Rodney and record for history his analysis of the WPA in power, 2015-2020.
After 2015, the WPA had one parliamentarian in the parliament, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, who was a senior Cabinet minister. Dr. Wazir Mohamed of the WPA overseas group came home to work with Roopnaraine. Dr. Clive Thomas held two powerful positions – head of the government’s anti-corruption unit (SARA) and chairman of GuySuCo. Dr. Maurice Odle held the formidable office of chairman of NICIL. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley later became Minister of the Public Service. Dr. Roopnaraine’s common-law wife, Joycelyn Dow, was very influential at the highest echelons of government.
My question is: are these people part of David’s mental vision of being excluded from state power ever again? If yes, does he see an obligation to Walter Rodney to publish his knowledge of the betrayal of revolutionary politics that Walter gave his life for? We come now to the PNC and AFC. Is he referring to both or just the AFC and not the WPA and PNC?
Let us assume he has only the AFC in mind then he should withdraw the term, “coalition leaders.” My conclusion is that he means the coalition in general to include PNC, AFC and WPA. Something has to be wrong with a man who says he loves his country and he knows that the ruling party is unfit to have power but he campaigned to have them win again.
How he can prevent destruction when he wants them back in power? It is not best to channel your energies to see unfit people from any side be kept from controlling the government or stay clear from the situation so when the destruction comes your conscience is clear. I did not give my vote to the PPP or the PNC. I hope the Irfaan Ali presidency works out for Guyana. I see nothing to deter me from wishing Dr. Ali the best in the future. I believe he was legally elected along with the PPP party. I am not going to spend my coming years like David crying about rigged elections because the world said the March 2020 election result was fair.

(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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Why did David say that coalition leaders must never have power again?

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