Rhonda Observer Contributor
The current administration must surely be causing severe heartburn to those persons that voted for it. The plethora of missteps and mistakes since assuming office have made the APNU-AFC look like a bunch of primary school children chosen randomly and entrusted with the onerous task of running a country. It is that bad! The brickbats have vastly outnumbered the bouquets and the enormity of the mistakes is alarming.
Let’s start from the very beginning. A very good place to start.
- President Granger was elected on a promise to maintain a lean and mean government. In fact, anyone listening to him would have thought that there would be a reduction of government ministries. First announcements spoke to increased ministries and more were to follow.
- The Cummingsburg accord must surely have resonated with voters. It did for this writer. I, for one, was excited at the prospect of the Prime Minister presiding over Cabinet and, (by my obviously misconceived notion), business and the economy. Arguably, the prevailing opinion is that – unpalatable as it might be – persons of Indian origin are much better at business than their Afro counterparts. It is within their DNA. On the contrary, Afro Guyanese are better at administration and organization than their Indo countrymen. It was therefore not inconceivable that a coalition that saw the heads of both factions doing what they did best, would be the logical way to go. Instead, once the votes were counted and the winner declared, talk about unconstitutionality seemed to have derailed the Accord, sending it on its merry way to hell in a hand-basket.
- Businessmen are in business to make money. Pure and simple! However, some of them take it to another level and are therefore immune to shame and embarrassment when it comes to protecting self-interest. So, it was no surprise when persons who were firmly entrenched within the PPP camp, crawled out from under that rock and quickly offered themselves, their resources and money in a patently selfish gesture of goodwill. There are also stories of largesse being doled out in the form of food and drink (which, as they say, is sure bait for some people), and people whose shoulders less than a week ago had reeked of the DNA of PPP government officials were unabashedly rubbing those same shoulders with officials of the new administration. Of course, every Tom, Mary and Mathilda could see right through this ruse. Why the new government would have accepted money from these business persons when their motives were clear, is baffling.
- There’s nothing confidential within the APNU-AFC. This government would certainly be known as the government of leaks. Since May 11, 2015, rarely has a day gone by without a leak of some sort. The newspapers and television news programs are overflowing with leaks of pending audits; leaks of prospective auditors; leaks of prospective ministerial candidates; leaks of who is under investigation; leaks of who will get the axe; leaks of who said what in cabinet; leaks of which governments are providing assistance in tracking stolen funds; leaks on what will happen to guilty offenders; leaks from audit reports that had not yet been seen by the President and Cabinet – leaks, leaks, leaks. There is absolutely no element of surprise. Every alleged offender within the previous government has had more than ample time to cover his or her tracks. PPP officials daily gloat at the prospect of no one being convicted of fraud or malfeasance and it is almost certain that this government will be bloodied when it comes up empty-handed after expending enormous sums of tax-payers money. Truth be told, everyone knows that there was wide-spread skulduggery and downright thievery but any chance at bringing offenders to book has been blown by an administration that could not operate in a confidential and professional manner. The fact that it chose to use persons openly and vocally opposed to the PPP as auditors and investigators has only served to exacerbate the situation. The perception will be that those auditors lack objectivity and any findings would be preconceived notions cloaked in trumped-up findings. And since those auditors charged fees that would have been charged by neutral persons with similar or superior credentials, one fails to see the logic in choosing them in the first place!
There are many uncomplimentary remarks being made about this Granger-led administration. Some deserving and others not. This writer believes that the afore-mentioned comments are well deserved. Those occupying the halls of power would be well advised to heed the negative comments, sift through them, take note of those that have even an iota of merit and take corrective action to stem the barrage of self-inflicted wounds that seem to be mutilating it at the moment.
Citing an improbable and questionable myth as fact does not lend credibility to this writer’s assertions. This one fails miserably – “Arguably, the prevailing opinion is that – unpalatable as it might be – persons of Indian origin are much better at business than their Afro counterparts. It is within their DNA” – I am unaware of any factual empirical evidence to support this narrative. In fact, when one looks empirically at the questionable activity most of the putative businessmen of Indian extract are involved in the results will shock! I could not go beyond this.
Khufu: Somehow I think you have misinterpreted the writer’s statement. It actually means quite the opposite.