Mistakes were made

Oct 26, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom yesterday. In his first address he did not try to assail the record of his predecessor; quite the opposite he was gracious in paying tribute to her.

This is what he said, “I want to pay tribute to my predecessor, Liz Truss. She was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country — it is a noble aim — and I admired her restlessness to create change.”

But then he went on to admit that mistakes were made. However he insisted that these mistakes were not the result of ill-will or bad intentions but they were mistakes nonetheless and as Prime Minister he was elected to fix them.

But Sunak was speaking about a fellow Conservative Prime Minister. Had he been succeeding someone from another political party, it is doubtful whether he would have been as gracious as he was yesterday.  It is likely that he would have said that mistakes were made but whether he would have said that these were not borne of ill-will or bad intentions is contestable.

As our local political commentators draw parallels between UK and Guyana, they are likely to note that our own Political Leaders across the political divide are fond of bashing each other. But how many of those in the Opposition would be willing to conceded that the APNU+AFC made mistakes, terrible mistakes and they paid for those mistakes through the loss of political office.

Instead of accepting that mistakes were made, many Opposition Leaders are fond of claiming that were cheated, that the Government was foisted upon the people and that the elections were fraudulent – all of which are among the most absurd of suggestions and which cannot withstand serious scrutiny.

Instead of acknowledging that mistakes were made, the APNU+AFC Coalition wants to blame the PPP/C. But hatred for the  PPP/C does not absolve the Coalition from responsibility for the mistakes which were made.

These mistakes were many. But fundamentally three main mistakes were made. The first was political and had to do with Coalitions politics.

The PNC/R dominated the Coalition and did not make any serious attempt at inclusive decision making. One political activist of the Working People’s Alliance did not pull any punches when he said that an apology should be offered to the Coalition’s supporters, He accused the APNU of failing to consult adequately with its members

But the mistakes that were made were not simply internal to the APNU. There was never a genuine partnership with the AFC. Coalition politics failed, in part frustrated by the supreme executive powers. The lesson which is being missed is that Coalition politics will always be doomed unless full Executive Power is removed from the hands of one individual and restored to Cabinet

The second set of mistakes was economic in nature. The financial policies of the Government were disastrous. A whole range of taxes and increased fees were heaped upon the Guyanese people. To place VAT on water and electricity was not smart at all. Tax reforms fell short of a makeover. Not a single major project was initiated or completed.  The decision to right size the sugar corporation was not properly thought through. The Coalition failed miserably with its economic.

Its refusal to do a post-mortem on it economic policies will continue to haunt it. It can only learn from undertaking a dispassionate assessment of its failed economic policies and the extent to which it contributed to the electoral defeat of the APNU+AFC.

The third mistake was more fatal. The secrecy with which the APNU+AFC signed the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) raised serious concerns about its commitment to openness and transparency. It took almost 18 months for the agreement to be made public and the public was subject to all manner of narratives as to why the agreement could not have been made known public earlier and why such a poor deal was signed. But worst of all was the gamesmanship over the signing bonus with one person having the temerity to claim that he thought it was a gift to the government.

The fallout from the PSA would have hurt the APNU+AFC’s chances at the elections. The signing of the agreement was a colossal mistake on the part of the Coalition. It has forfeited the future of all Guyanese with that singular act.

Two years after it demitted office, the APNU+AFC is still not willing to concede that the oil agreement was a major misstep. Despite the relentless efforts of persons such as Glenn Lall to call for renegotiation, it was only until recently that the APNU+AFC seems willing to accept the need for renegotiation.

But unless it accepts that it made mistakes, many mistakes, it will never be able to restore its credibility. And that will give the PPP/C another five terms in office.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not this newspaper.)

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