A new Cabinet?
Editorial
Stabroek News
December 28, 2003
Running a country like Guyana is not an easy undertaking. One can only wonder that so many of our politicians (those who are out of office, that is) expend so much energy in trying to get into government; anyone who thinks that he or she is capable of working miracles and transforming the nation wizard-style, is simply delusional. Of course, parties which have been out of office for long enough - as the PPP was prior to 1992 - forget about the complexities of governance, and enter the corridors of power in a rosy haze of optimism.
The haze does dissipate over time, however, and it eventually becomes apparent that speedy transformations exist only in politicians' dreams. As incumbency endures, the gap between the reality of what has been achieved (which may not necessarily be negligible) and the vision of the heady post-election period gets wider. But no politician admits to failure - or at least, very rarely. As such, therefore, the shortcomings have to be explained away by blaming someone else for impeding progress, by castigating the press for its negative approach when 'positive' things are happening, by cranking up the propaganda machine to emphasize 'good' occurrences, no matter how modest their significance in the larger context, etc.
The final stage is reached when a party in office starts to get sloppy, and simply ignores criticisms or questions about matters of concern to the electorate, or pretends no knowledge of that of which the entire populace is apprised, or cannot be bothered to honour its word. By this point, it will operate as if it is no longer sensitive to what the voters think, or what kind of image it presents to the public. And after eleven years in office, the Government has got sloppy.
This is not to suggest that it does not have some significant achievements to its credit, or that the main opposition party, for example, has not played an important role in creating a climate inimical to stability and investment, or that some sections of the media have not been irreponsible. However, all of this is far from explaining away entirely the inability of the administration to perform in certain key sectors.
All governments lose their zest after a decade in office, but in our case the situation is exacerbated by the fact that many of our ministers (some of whom have hardly turned in stellar performances) have grown roots in the Cabinet room; they have, in short, the next best thing to a tenured post. Is it surprising, therefore, that an atmosphere of ennui envelops the Government?
What the administration needs for the New Year is an infusion of new blood, which hopefully will bring with it some innovative thinking and renewed vigour. Perhaps newcomers in the Cabinet room would be more receptive to casting around outside the sacred walls of Freedom House for ideas, and would be less obsessed about criticism than the current denizens of the ministries, more particularly if that criticism has some foundation.
Perhaps too, they would be less suspicious of those outside the charmed circle housed above the Michael Forde bookshop, and would be prepared to solicit views from people who do not qualify as loyal supporters of the governing party. In a country with as severe a dearth of human resources as ours, a government can ill afford to exclude those skills which do not fall within the party's penumbra.
And maybe they would be more willing to restore that connection to the people, to listen to their complaints and to respond candidly to them. Maybe they would be more open to answering questions which are of public concern and which raise major issues of governance. In addition, maybe they would stop stonewalling us on 'phantom' squads and the like, and give us some straight answers once in a while. Then too, perhaps they would be less capricious - a habit that is death to any government's reputation for accountability and transparency - and when they say they are going to arbitration, they really would go to arbitration and not back away from their commitments.
The Guyanese people are weary; however, they don't want a Government which projects weariness, and some of whose members behave more as if they are part of an oligarchy than a constitutional body in a democratic state. The people understand that government in our circumstances is not easy; but that does not mean that their views and questions should be ignored, or that they should be treated in a patronizing fashion and shielded from the truth, let alone be deceived.
As President Jagdeo rings in the New Year, perhaps he should give a passing thought to ringing in a new Cabinet for 2004.