The Truth of the Matter

May 24, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News- The problem with the PNC/R is the absence of self-criticism. But that is not a problem which is unique to the party.
Every time the PNC/R loses an election or is accused of some grievous wrong, it blames someone else. It loves to absolve itself from wrongdoing.
When the PNC lost the 1992 elections, it did not accept that its failed policies and authoritarian rule for 24 long years had long created the need for change. It seemed to have assumed that Guyanese were comfortable with its excesses and deprivations which included food shortages.
Its refrain then was that Jimmy Carter had come and rigged the elections. One section of the party, which had attempted to derail the elections by bussing in supporters to create mayhem in front of the Guyana Elections Commission on Croal Street, claimed massive disenfranchisement. But the PNC never blamed its own policies and history.
When the PNC/R lost the 1997 elections, it blamed everyone else but itself. And when violence broke out as a result of its protests, it was always somebody else who was responsible. Whenever violence broke out during its protest marches, the PNC/R always claimed that the protests were infiltrated. It never accepted any responsibility for what ensured during those protests.
Even when a used drinks-bottle peddler was kidnapped and taken to Congress Place and interviewed by Desmond Hoyte, the PNC/R accepted no responsibility for the abduction of an innocent man.
After one incident in which persons left Congress Place and began stoning the home of then TUF Leader, Manzoor Nadir, the PNC/R refused to accept responsibility. It never does.
The PNC/R never accepted any responsibility for the inflammatory remarks of its leaders which precipitated the West Coast Berbice violence in August 2020. The PNC/R has not even bothered to deny the alleged incitement.
After the 2020 elections, it refused to accept its defeat. And it has refused to concede that it has acted undemocratically. The party barefacedly blames the international community for what it deems regime change and continues to perpetuate the false narrative that the elections were rigged in favour of the PPP/C.
The PNC/R operates as if it is without sin. It behaves as if it is not guilty of any wrongdoing. It refuses to even concede that mistakes were made.
There is not one person or organisation which can claim to be faultless. It is human nature to make mistakes, now and then.
Unless persons admit to their mistakes, unless they have the openness to admit that they did something that was wrong or could have done something better, they will never improve. Unless they face up to the truth, they will never do better.
The APNU+AFC made mistakes while in office and these mistakes contributed to its electoral defeat. From very early in its term, the PNC/R committed a cardinal error when it took timid action in relation to the rental of the drugs bond in Sussex Street. Those responsible should have been sent packing immediately.
The Coalition made mistakes when it granted its Ministers a 50 percent increase in salaries. This upset even its most ardent supporters.
The Coalition imposed huge burdens on workers in the form of taxes and fees. It upset many when it imposed certain taxes on private education.
It alienated a large section of the professional and middle classes when the Georgetown City Council introduced parking meters. The City Council is dominated by the APNU+AFC.
Its financial management of the economy left much to be desired. In June 2020, the deposit account at the Bank of Guyana was in deficit of G$91B from a positive balance of G$15B in 2015. Personnel costs of the government increased by almost 60 percent, and this was attributed to the over-stacking of the public bureaucracy. The Guyana dollar depreciated rather than appreciated. In some cases, businessmen were forced to pay as much as G$230 to US$1 on their credit cards. This led to an increase in prices.
Workers were upset. While public servants do not enjoy a bonus, the APNU paid a bonus in their first year, then cut it in half the next year and it totally disappeared after that. Teachers had to threaten industrial action before the government finally settled on wage talks.
The Coalition’s handling of the sugar industry resulted in the retrenchment of almost 7,000 sugar workers. And the humiliation of these workers was compounded when some of them had to wait for a long time for their severance payments.
The Coalition, however, did a lot of good things. It had a progressive minimum wage and old-age pension policies. Its environmental programme (Green State) was impressive as was its plan to reduce educational anomalies and offering free transportation to poor school children. The holding of local government elections and the decision to establish new towns were also positive moves. It failed however to make a big impact on crime, it did not implement any major new infrastructural project – and did poorly with the inherited public sector investment projects which it inherited from the PPP/C, including the besieged Timehri International Airport Project. The city clean-up effort was impressive also but the effort was not sustained.
But the one misstep which probably cost the Coalition political office was the secretive signing of the Producing Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil, Ness and CNOOC. The APNU+AFC have to be honest with itself and admit to its mistakes. It cannot continue to try to deflect blame onto others; nor can it hope to gain political redemption by being delusional.
(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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