Editorial Bellowing in the wind

It is hardly surprising that the Opposition feels isolated. Leaving aside its disreputable attempt to rig the 2020 election, since it went out of office on August 2nd it has played the few cards left in its hand extraordinarily badly. It does not seem to have recognised how seriously its credibility was undermined by the sequence of events it engineered following the vote of no confidence in December 2018, and it appears oblivious to the fact that its stridency in trying to persuade the public of the illegitimacy of the present government just makes it look ridiculous. Except for its hard-core supporters and those who desperately want to believe that APNU+AFC has a case, the average citizen thinks that the party leaders are fully aware they lost the poll, and are just cynically promoting a fantasy.

That fantasy is directed in the first instance at their own constituents, but also at the outside world if it can be persuaded to listen. The outside world, however, knows better. APNU+AFC has taken the matter to court, as it is constitutionally entitled to do, and as a face-saving device that was undoubtedly its best course of action. But it should have stopped there and refrained from the noisy asseverations about illegitimacy outside of that context, or the vulgar displays in the Parliament or the interminable allegations about the government’s dismissals of public servants on account of their race. No evidence has been provided about how many persons we are talking about, and the egregious case of Dr Vincent Adams aside, what their unique qualifications for their posts were, as opposed to those of their replacements.

What can be said with some assurance is that the PPP/C wants its own loyalists in key positions, but then so did the Coalition before it. Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon should cast his mind back to how many public servants his government terminated, and whether any of their successors had a special claim to competency. In this country meritocratic principles have simply not embedded themselves in the psyche of our administrators, and until they do the rest of us will no doubt have to listen to endless accusations emanating from accusers who themselves are guilty of similar transgressions.

Mr Harmon, as said already, has had little success in getting his message across locally, let alone in persuading the government to commit to consultations. President Irfaan Ali has declared he was open to discussions with the Leader of the Opposition but insisted that Mr Harmon must first acknowledge the legitimacy of the government. It is a nonsensical precondition, and where matters such as the appointment of a Chancellor of the Judiciary and a Chief Justice are concerned, also an unconstitutional one.

The Freedom House strategy seems to be to sideline the Opposition and appeal directly to their supporters with patter about unity and the like. With greater economic flexibility than this country has ever seen before, the aim is, no doubt, to provide benefits of all kinds to the APNU constituency, thereby detaching it from its traditional political base. As such, the PPP/C does not really want to work with the Opposition, so imposing an unacceptable condition for talks is in its interest. Whether the old PNC will wither away as a consequence of the game plan, or whether its constituency will remain committed politically no matter what gifts come its way, only time will tell.

There is also always the possibility that some novel entity will arise which seeks to speak for African Guyanese in circumstances where the influence of Sophia dwindles to a low ebb, or that in due course some more racially amorphous opposition body makes its appearance. The point is, for the PPP to attempt to manipulate the situation with a view to it becoming the only meaningful political force in the land is not an outcome, which even if possible, is destined for longevity. Societies change in ways we cannot always predict, while history has an unnerving habit of delivering bouncers.

As it is, Mr Harmon is seeking assistance from outside. Last month he had written to Caricom Chairman Keith Rowley seeking the Community’s intervention in mediating the current impasse between the Government and the Opposition. He said he had received no reply. He should not have been surprised. As Mr Ralph Ramkarran pointed out in his column two weeks ago, Caricom is probably “thoroughly disgusted at the behaviour of APNU+AFC”, not least, one imagines by it signing on to a Caricom recount and then fostering a legal challenge against what it had signed. How can the party be trusted, the other leaders must be thinking? In addition, as Mr Ramkarran said, Caricom will not intervene unless invited by both sides, and clearly the government is not looking for any mediation at the moment.

The Opposition Leader has done his rounds with the Canadians, but more significant was his encounter with the US Ambassador last week. Ms Lynch was presented with a “summary report” on “the PPP regime’s executive lawlessness, political persecution and ethnicization of Guyana for the period August 2 to December, 25, 2020”. What was most confounding, however, was Mr Harmon’s request that the embassy communicate Opposition views to Washington on a regular basis, because “a large section of the local media landscape is unhelpful to the Opposition.”

If that left the Ambassador somewhat nonplussed, since it is the function of any mission to convey the full political situation in a country to its own government, she did not let on. According to a statement from the US Embassy, “Ambassador Lynch asked about opposition strategies to alleviate poverty, address climate change, and enhance national security. Both sides emphasized a commitment to strengthening ties between the United States and Guyana, and reinforcing social cohesion after the political turmoil of Guyana’s 2020

election cycle.”

And that is the whole point. What are APNU+AFC’s policies on substantive issues? We don’t hear from anyone except Mr Harmon, and even then more often than not that involves vituperation along the customary lines. Does the party not have anything else to say? What are its shadow ministers doing? Do they know anything at all about their subject areas? Now that Mr Carl Greenidge is not around, is there any one of them who could answer Dr Ashni Singh, for example, at some kind of sophisticated level? If APNU+AFC wants to be taken seriously it must operate like an informed opposition, offering alternative policies, which does not mean it should not give support where necessary. An opposition whose members command a level of intellectual respect in terms of their shadow portfolios, will be hard to dismiss in a contemptuous way, and will put psychological pressure on the government to meet.

And then there is the question of what steps the party commits to undertaking to ‘reinforce social cohesion’ as opposed to what it says the government is not doing. This is particularly relevant considering the behaviour of Messrs Granger and Harmon on the West Coast Berbice following the killing of the Henry cousins.

The larger problem for the party at the moment seems to lie with APNU Leader David Granger, who perversely has displayed a preference for surrounding himself with unquestioning loyalists, and bypassing anyone of talent. As the Representative of the List he has chosen some of the least able and the least experienced members to sit in Parliament. In addition of course, his Opposition Leader has an army background, and lacks the skills and the subtlety to operate effectively in a political universe. But then that too has been a weakness of Mr Granger, in so far as he believed that military norms could be transferred directly to politics.

At the moment he sits quietly and unheard, and one suspects that even the members of his own party both inside and outside Georgetown have hardly had face-to-face contact with him since before the election. Whether he will continue to lead APNU for the longer term is not known, not least because it is not clear if the 21st Biennial Congress will be held this year owing to the pandemic.

Whatever the case, in the meantime Mr Harmon is to all intents and purposes in charge. A country like this needs an opposition – one that is effective, that is. If APNU+AFC upgrades its approach and undertakes the hard work involved in devising policies, confronting government when a ministry falls short or when it makes a dubious decision, and so on, it will be taken far more seriously both inside and outside Guyana than it is at present. If it doesn’t, it will just continue to bellow in the wind.