I’ll begin by stating what the Guyanese people view as obvious.
President Granger continues to extend inexplicable latitude to his Minister of Presidency for whom he has had to make way too many excuses, way too often and way too early in the Administration’s tenure.
These first eleven months have been a nail biting experience for those who voted with abandon, desperation, for this Coalition; grateful that they had been given a chance to rid themselves of the Political Pariahs that were the PPP.
And there were those who quietly acquiesced, thought with trained guilt about voting for a man like Granger because of his history and his hue, none of which lined up with their indoctrination.
But they were prepared to let common sense subordinate rabid rhetoric, recitations like ‘Granger Danger’ and all that that implied.
This man came with unbendable bona fides. He was a man of quiet decency; the social and intellectual opposite to the man who had occupied the chair for 12 years and then by proxy through the administration of his successor.
It was a silent coup, calculated by a theorem of frustration – on the premise that the social vexation felt by those in opposition had reached its point of critical mass at the same time that it reached its point of saturation in those who had been repeat voters because of indoctrination.
It was a rare alignment of political stars divinely gifted to lift the oppression that had ground Guyanese into subjection.
An Accord was struck between the Opposition, details of which may have been not to everyone’s liking but the potential end result – that of ejecting the PPP – was the single outcome that voters sought. So, they went along with the formula, prepared to back in to the answer if they didn’t quite know how to calculate it from the front end, not giving it much fore thought once it equaled dismissal of the regime that had stripped them of hope.
After all, they were clamoring for change from governance that disrespected their existence, disregarded their needs, disenfranchised them of their rights to receive the leadership that was expected of an elected body so the arithmetic didn’t have to be right. It just had to produce the right answer.
So when this government that they waited so long for appears to be offering a repeat cycle of what the majority of the electorate voted against, it is understandable that there will be weeping and a gnashing of teeth by those who feel that they have been placed on extended pause by this Administration which is yet to deliver to the extent of people’s expectations – for the period that it has been in power.
President Granger appears to be working a continuum of apologia, defense and justification and has done so with just enough frequency to force many into a state of unease, cause many to think of contingency too early – even before the sun begins its descent on the ‘Sun Down’ clause of the Coalition Agreement.
Now he’s telling the electorate, the Guyanese Diaspora, in a bravado that seems almost confrontational, incongruent with his comportment, that he sees nothing wrong with the behavior of his Minister of Presidency because it does not violate any code – this Minister who has now garnished the reputation of serial offender.
Maybe he, President Granger, should have defined code violation earlier on because for most people, code violation does not only exist on paper but is portrayed in behavior, especially since many relate more to visual behavior than its interpretation by damage control teams in the aftermath.
Minister Harmon must have violated some code if he, the President, rescinded the appointment of Brian Tiwari whom this Minister appointed as Presidential Advisor, unbeknownst to the President.
And. it must have been a fiasco because this forced President Granger to make a retraction that was uncharacteristically inartful.
The one thing that he said in this interview that still offers hope is that it could have been handled differently.
Though it is a superfluous observation, those of us who still support him feel that there is no way that he couldn’t see that handling things differently was the only option… and that collective thinking that the behavior was a fiasco is no notion at all.
We know that President Granger knows that he was elected because it was the general consensus that he was the one person who could be trusted to select Ministers who would have the people’s interest at heart.
We know that he understands that he was elected on a mandate to work for the people and that the longevity of this novel model of government rests squarely on his shoulders – as the one person who can tweak it to ensure that it runs as he and other members of the Coalition told voters it would run.
This is not about considering the imposition of disciplinary action because Government is no place for on the job training.
This is not about saving political face either because the electorate still has the power to remove dissatisfactory governments.
This is about demanding a government that works to promote general welfare; one that doesn’t look like an exclusive club of operatives who behave badly and have their Chief Executive Officer perform perpetual damage control.
Working for the people remains the foremost reelection incentive.
A proactive government would bear this firmly in mind.