Blunders and mismanagement make the Coalition return
Dear Editor,
The controlling PPP finds himself very carefully holding office. It doesn’t take much for him to lose government. In fact, PPP makes many mistakes to incorporate the PNC into destabilizing activities. It continues to mismanage resources and personnel as happened under the previous regime, with little distinguishing characteristics of the coalition in terms of organizational incompetence and corruption.
For example, Glenn Lall revealed the mismanagement surrounding the award of land for many houses and businesses. Businesses walk into the Ministry of Housing and get thousands of acres of land for free while the poor join in all day and may be lucky to have lots of housing. Corruption continues! The PPP has also brought in those who were fingered with the misuse of funds in the field of Foreign Affairs, Energy, Finance, Housing, Agriculture, Guysuco, NICIL, oil and gas, and elsewhere. Not much has changed. The PPP has continued the oil and gas regime as under the coalition.
The APNU + AFC coalition could return to power if things remain as they are. The PPP governs that it learned nothing from its 23 years of experience, creating opportunities for APNU’s return. “Bricks, fraud, and related attitudes remain under the PPP,” as Mr. Glenn Lall on a live radio show last Friday. “Dey eye pass web” is correct, giving foreigners everything and “coming after us, the little guy, for petty taxes.”
The Coalition binds its time before it takes to the street to destabilize the government. The PNC has been strategically busy on how to destabilize the government. Hard-core racers are in New York, Arizona, Georgia, and Guyana, spreading deformation against PPP rule. And the PPP reiterates some of the same blunders it did during the post-Jagan period. The PPP has allowed PNC veterans to locate within the PPP, deceiving its leadership about being loyal to them when they actually carry out the coalition proposal. And the PPP has not done itself any favors; he joins a variety of principled people who connect people who would do anything for money. These characters jump from party to party; they are exploiters who stand for nothing but enjoy the confidence of party leadership and are rewarded with high positions and / or business contracts. They make business deals for self-enrichment. They would do anything for money including abandoning tomorrow’s PPP to suit their interests. And there are those within the PPP who are rewarded with high positions including Ministerial portfolios for being loyalists but who caused the PPP to lose power in 2011 and 2015. There are also a few total strangers to activism PPPs get Ministerial posts at the expense of hard working PPPs. All these actions of the PPP leadership make the PPP surviving very vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the government is not taking measures to prevent violent instability. It must not be forgotten that rebellion was like a civil unrest in West Berbice, organized by the coalition not even a month into the PPP administration. The instability that included arson, vandalism, and theft and violence inspired by the country’s ethnicity closed for several days. More such violence is coming, and the government is not preparing itself with an institutional response. I watch with great anticipation what the opposition will do next after its attempt to rig the March election rejected by its Caricom partners and Western democracies and the violence it provoked in West Berbice. Political instability is expected after the New Year.
The coalition is determined to derail the PPP administration. There is no need to be reminded that the PPP received only 51% of the votes or 33 seats. The coalition got 47% of the votes or 31 seats with one seat going to the minor parties. Only one seat separates the PPP from the combined opposition.
At another election, only 8,000 votes taken from the PPP and diverted to the opposition by hook or stick can return power to the coalition. This is not impossible to achieve. Creating political instability to make a PPP look bad can undo the PPP. In addition, the PPP administration’s blunders that bring back known scams to control state enterprises and government boards are breaking confidence among PPP supporters, many of whom are turning their backs on the ruling party. The administration has too many that are not up to the task and which have been corrupted during his earlier time in government. Supporters of the party are crumbling. President Ali should seek to honestly promote or recruit credible personalities to assist in the governance and management of state corporations. The PPP is losing more than 15K votes within the prospect of the next election to return the coalition back in power.
Truly,
Shawn Simmons