Dear Editor,
In his letter `Trust in gov’t has been severely breached in five short months’ (Stabroek News, October 22, 2015) Civil Society activist, Clairmont Lye, has given a very effective and informative presentation on key promises made by the APNU+AFC Alliance during their election campaign and how these promises have been broken in just five months of being in power. His letter elicited the comment online `Clairmont, when you list the facts like that, you make a compelling argument, which is why the coalition has to learn to listen to the people; especially its support base..” from Emile Mervin, a staunch but fair-minded backer of the Alliance.
Mr. Mervin’s comment raises an interesting question “how is it possible to get the coalition to listen to the people?” In the latest matter, i.e. Ministers’ salary increases, calls from prominent community leaders and coalition backers, including Mr. Mervin, have all been rebuffed. In fact, all the top ranking members of the Government including President Granger, Prime Minister Nagamootoo, and key ministers, Harmon and Trotman, have come out strongly in defence of the salary increases and, more-so, with implausible justifications.
Die-hard supporters of the Government may see the broken promises as missteps of the new Government. However, to many who were young people in the immediate post-independence period in Guyana, the Government’s behaviour is eerily similar to what transpired at that time, ultimately leading to the suppressing of the peoples’ power and their voice.
Incidentally, Freddie Kissoon, a zealous backer of the coalition, has just written two consecutive columns which suggest that there is some dissension among the coalition partners and uneasiness in the AFC camp. The first article (Kaieteur News, October 21, 2015, `Raphael Trotman: Faustian journey’ reports that Raphael Trotman outmaneuvered Ramjattan and Nagamootoo in ingratiating himself with his former PNC colleagues to the point where his loyalty to the AFC is now in doubt. In the second, (Kaieteur News, October 22, 2015, `Ramotar says it is too early to reflect’ Kissoon, a close associate of the top leadership of the AFC, is clearly pleading on behalf of the AFC, writing “In all seriousness, I think the APNU leadership should acknowledge that if it wasn’t for the vivid symbolism of the APNU+ AFC unity team, the three- way race of 2011 repeated in 2015 would have resulted in another PPP minority government. Honestly! The PNC (not APNU) should be grateful to the AFC.”
From these two articles, which hint at being based on insider information, and the failure of President Granger to implement the core of the Cummingsburg Accord, one is left with the feeling that the AFC people may be fearing a repeat of the 1960s when Peter D’Aguiar, Leader of the UF and coalition partner of the PNC at the time, was forced out of the Government.
It is worth noting that the base supporters had fully embraced the PNC in nationalizing the Bauxite industry (yes with Cheddi Jagan in tow), the move that doomed the industry, as well as accepting the dismantling of the rail transportation system, both areas where PNC supporters were the bulk of the employees and who ultimately ended up losing their jobs. Had Cheddi Jagan initiated these changes, one can imagine what the repercussion would have been. He had tried far less with the budget in 1962 and the city went up in flames.
As Mr. Mervin implied in his comment, it is now time for the coalition’s support base to make the Government listen. One hopes that the saying of our ancestors “when boat gone a falls, it cyaan’t turn back” is heeded. There is still time.
Yours faithfully,
Harry Hergash
