That the Opposition Leader never transitioned to that level is no longer such a bone of contention.
We expressed concern in January of 2022 after the delivery of a News Year’s message that fell short of the ‘peace unto earth and good will towards men’ sentiment that is the universal tradition and was substituted for a …well… let’s just say one that was not.
And this recent headline, citing his uncharachteristic response, makes us wonder at the self-imposed ‘gag order’.
Replacement of the previous Opposition for reasons that need not be revisited was the general sentiment and the new leader was elected with overwhelming approval.
It’s important to underscore ‘elected’, which means he ascended on partisan popularity and a portfolio that spotlights his partisan politicking as his strength.
And it may be this familiarity as a one- man show that presents the Opposition leader as impervious to the change necessary to see his portfolio as extending beyond party and into the country; where his responsibility is to deliver, to the entire nation, what his arm of government has evaluated from the proposals of government, offer informed analyses of how they will impact our economy and present them with the professionalism that is befitting of the Office.
The months since what should have been a promotion and an elevation of the Coalition from combatant to government have been a continual volley of phrases, moving across the landscape in search of some kerosine.
It’s not unusual for new governments to start their tenure in campaign mode, as they transition into actual governance. The question was whether the Opposition Leader’s administration had experience beyond partisan politicking, to segue into actual governance.
The short answer is no.
Converting the universal civil greeting into a declaration of ‘not shaking the hands of his oppressors’ was the point at which the role of nation builder and preserver of the Political Coalition was subverted for personal and partisan practices that a wider complement of experience would have informed him was unfavorable for negotiating within his portfolio, as 50% governance, on behalf of those who were hoping for a leader to work for them and not himself…like so many of his predecessors did.
We’re subscribers to the fact that no one knows everything and were curious why the abundance of expertise, evident in the podcast academia that share information on debilitating issues, was not utilized to help move the novel duty of Opposition Leader in the direction that the designation demands.
The absence of an administrative framework, with a combination of necessary disciplines to harness the politicking that is the Leader’s isolated strength, may be the reason why the Opposition felt that its duty was to boycott Parliament to protest the disciplining of its MP’S, who’s behavior was not only grossly unbecoming but smeared the image of Parliament internationally and under the Leadership of this Opposition.
One year in, hundreds of contracts with as many announcements of proposals for hospitals, pharmacies and other critical infrastructure by the Government and there has not been one comprehensive response from the elected Opposition, which has reverted to the comparative fetal stage of governing… leaning on friendly neighborhoods to foment and agitate.
We’re positive that the Opposition knows it has neither the votes nor the platform to introduce proposals but it has both the platform and duty to participate in every single deal the Government makes, weigh its benefit and then, as its OBLIGATION, tell the citizens what the Government plans to do in their name.
Negotiating outside of Parliament is politicking not leading.
The people depending on the Opposition to show if there is a privacy component to the online medical record technology proposal want answers based upon conducted studies. The state of the art equipment that the hospitals, by Sheriff, will be installing need verification before they are consumed by patients. Contracts to foreign and local vendors should have an employment clause for local work force.
The job of the Opposition is to check and balance…not for specific individuals, particular groups or decided causes but for the overall improvement of all resident Guyanese.
And the Guyanese more worried about bruising the feelings of this elected body need to be more concerned about what its absence of business competence is doing to those who depend on it and to the nation as a whole; and not on individuals’ egos.
Engaging in a whisper campaign is the kind of hypocrisy that will embolden it.
The weekly press conferences are counterproductive not only on conception but execution.
Conception would contemplate general methods the Opposition implemented to go along with the government to bring its proposals to the different regions…medical infra structure, for example. Execution would show, in broad strokes, how decisions were made to support or oppose proposed efforts by the larger arm of government.
The head table presentation that details gripes and delineates grouses is a self-serving show directed at a sliver of the population through non national media reach, which removes it as a message of national import.
To have gotten so much so wrong in such a short space time may just be that intoxication of power and self-serving importance that overrides national good and prefigures partisan demise.
The headlines tell the tale…being mum on fate of Parliamentarians… because the Holder of the List is still the previous Opposition Leader, whose appetite for mind games is, reportedly, insatiable.
And Mr. Ramjattan, of the other large party, is still the Deputy Holder of the List – a promotion the current leader has NOT earned- which suggests greater room for the voracious appetite of the holder of the Lis to unnerve and unsettle, in signature form…is the thinking.
The torrent of stock phrases and unrelated slogans delivered in a semblance of deliberative cadence, possibly intended to suggest an origin of deep thinking, coming from the Leader of the Opposition, never convinces us of that … especially since we know that politicking and governing are worlds apart.
Being ‘Mum on the fate of AFC Parliamentarians’ reads like some anticlimactic apathy which doesn’t line up with any trait demonstrated by this leader that would suggest calculated silence; some balanced and harmonious approach.
We’re willing to wager that the fate of the Parliamentarians sits on a chess board, in a dimly lit room with war room maps and pencils mounted on protractors, calculating the moves that would deal with everyone, not excluding the Leader…
The uncharacteristic lack of comment tells us a couple of things…not the least of which is that the fate of the Parliamentarians is not the Leader’s call.