Dear Editor,
Upon reading your news article, “AFC MP in team for Nebraska as dispute settled,” (March 3), I must say I am relieved and happy that the AFC has waged a successful public fight to be represented on the parliamentary delegation to Nebraska this month.
I have been closely following this particular new development, in which the main opposition party, the PNC, obviously failed to demonstrate the level of maturity and foresight it ought to have for a party that has been trumpeting the need for shared governance.
I found it rather disturbing that the PNC reportedly sought to use some sort of agreement reached by the Parliamentary Management Committee members not to air issues in the public to suppress the AFC’s voice on this issue.
Now if the AFC had adhered to that agreement and had not gone public with its charge, would the PNC have quietly acquiesced to the AFC’s demand and given up one of the four slots the PNC coveted?
And what’s up with this secrecy notion at a time when the need for transparency and accountability in all branches of government is so great? Is this a ploy to continually keep the public in the dark or is it to hurt the AFC from inside Parliament and keep the acts a secret?
Look, I concur with the AFC that the PPP and PNC, cognizant of the emerging role of the AFC as a viable political alternative, have been giving the AFC the silent treatment, because they view the AFC as the ‘new kid on the block’ out to dismantle the status quo enjoyed by the PPP and PNC of shamelessly exploit-ing their traditional ethnic support bases at election time in order to remain viable or run the government.
If there is anyone out there who thinks this status quo is good for Guyana, just do a cursory assessment of the PPP since it took office and you will see that in many ways its behaviour mirrors the PNC, when the latter was in office. There is no transparency or acceptable level of accountability; there is systemic corruption, or there is a propensity for authoritarianism.
And all this is made possible thanks to ethnic voting patterns that allow Guyanese to vote race rather than issues.
The AFC, like the Walter Rodney WPA, refuses to pander to people’s ethnicity to draw support. It has shown a preference to identify supporters on the basis of ability and willingness under an umbrella of patriotism or country first. It has the basic ingredients of an issues-based party.
I don’t expect the AFC to be perfect, but I would always be greatly impressed if or when it makes mistakes, to acknowledge them, and move forward. That’s something I have long been expecting from the PNC, and am currently looking at the PPP to do before it sinks itself further as an obsolete replacement of the PNC in power.
So to AFC detractors, whose criticisms may inadvertently be keeping the AFC on its toes, please remember the PPP and PNC have made mistakes for the decades they’ve been around. And the fact they are still around is testimony of their resiliency and tenacity. The AFC has to learn to hang in there.
Yes, people will talk about its mistakes and even use these to try to daunt the spirit of the party’s leadership, but since no one is perfect, the leadership has to take the high road and keep moving forward. In so doing, its humility and determination may hold valuable lessons for others who may make mistakes and want to know how to get up and keep on moving.
The party must brace itself for days when it will be misunderstood and get knocked from within and without, but if it cannot overcome today’s elementary hurdles of accusations and silent treatments, or learn from its errors, it won’t be able to overcome the greater challenges ahead.
And among its challenges ahead are 1) to usher in a change from the traditional politics of ethnic pandering/ voting; 2) to appoint, promote and reward Guyanese on the basis of ability and not ethnicity; 3) to usher in transparency and accountability in all branches of government and on all levels of government; 4) to end executive influence over and interference in the legislative and judicial braches of government, 5) to assure the public the right, even if through a court of law, to obtain information from the government and not simply rely on press releases and conferences, and 6) to produce an economic blueprint capable of taking Guyana from depending on loans, grants, foreign remittances and an underground economy of drugs, money laundering and other illicit activities.
I look forward to reading a comprehensive report or extracts from an interview with the AFC’s David Patterson on his return from Nebraska.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
