The PPP/C is its own worst enemy

Feb 04, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – The APNU+AFC destroyed whatever chances it had of ever being returned to office. It affected its own fortunes by seeking to benefit from the attempt to rig the 2020 general and regional elections.

Had it simply conceded, accepted its defeat and took action to remove the under-performers who were responsible for its electoral loss in the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections, it may have been able to return to government in 2025. It cannot now do so because of what it attempted to do with the elections results.

The PPP/C took a different approach. It lost the 2015 elections and went into Opposition. It spent the next five years organising its base, then expanding its support, winning two local government elections and then humiliating the APNU+AFC by the successful passage of a non-confidence motion.

The four years elapsed quickly and the PPP/C returned to the saddle of political power. The PPP/C is riding into a long tenure in office because of the silly shenanigans of the APNU+AFC.
The APNU+AFC did not have the patience of the PPP/C. Some of its leaders were unprepared to go back into Opposition and therefore there was an attempt to steal the elections, which backfired.

If only the APNU+AFC had conceded gracefully and waited out its five years, the PPP/C would have been booted out in 2025. But that is not going to happen because a critical segment of the electorate will never again trust the APNU+AFC with political office.
It was democracy, which had delivered a razor slim majority – but a majority nonetheless – to the APNU+AFC in 2015. And, instead of the Coalition accepting that, its best chance of regaining power was through the ballot, it tried to rig and bully its way back into office.

The APNU+AFC should have routed those within its leadership who spread the narrative of an ‘installed’ government. So long as that narrative persists, APNU+AFC will remain in the Opposition because those who spew such a narrative will not enjoy any credibility.

Instead of turning against those who were pouting the narrative of an ‘installed’ government, forces within the APNU turned against David Granger, the one hope which the APNU+AFC had of ever returning to government.
If the APNU+AFC had accepted its defeat, the Irfaan Ali administration would have been a one-term government. Ali is a young man and he will learn on the job but he cannot bring about the economic transformation which he is promising. He is in my estimation out of his depth as President.

The government is on a spending spree. But the economy does not have the capacity to absorb that level of spending at the rate at which the PPPC is proceeding. To compound the problems for the young President, the usual suspects are around and are doing the same nonsense which cost the PPP/C its majority in 2011 and the presidency in 2015.
It should be clear to all by now that so long as the usual suspects are in his order, so long as he is pursuing the big projects which his administration is incapable of executing, so long as these projects serve the interests of a small oligarchic class which has re-emerged, Ali cannot deliver the transformation he promises.

The Opposition need not worry about Ali’s wish list of projects, including two new drainage canals for Regions 5 and Regions 6 for which the nation has not heard about any study which justifies either. They need not worry about the gas-to-shore project. That will not be completed in time for 2025. The Opposition need not worry about the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project. No one is going to invest in that when the government holds a one-seat majority in the National Assembly.
The PPP/C is its own worst enemy. The Opposition does not have to do anything to undermine the PPP/C. The usual suspects will take the economy and the PPP/C down the drain as they did to Donald Ramotar. The Opposition does not need to do anything; just leave the PPP/C to its ways and it will self-destruct.

But the PPP/C has a ticket to power until 2030. And it was the APNU+AFC, which handed it that ticket.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

accepted, APNU+AFC, Elections, Peeping Tom, Regional, successful

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