Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 02, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The PPPC is very dismissive of calls for investigations and inquiries, especially when it comes from outside of their ranks. The PPPC feels that to give in to calls for investigations will make the government look bad. This however is far from true. In the few instances in which the PPPC has buckled to public pressure and have launched investigations it had made them look good. It showed that they are prepared to be responsive to demands and to open themselves to scrutiny. The PPPC launched inquires into construction problems with the sea defence and the conservancy dam. These did not end up embarrassing the government. In fact the government came out looking good.
When there were public calls for an investigation into alleged links between a former Minister of Home Affairs and death squads, the PPPC initially resisted. They then gave in and the result of the Commission of Inquiry exonerated it of any ties to death squads. The government came out looking good. It has never been lawfully established that the government had such kinks as was being claimed by the opposition. In other words, the responsiveness of the government helped to disprove a propaganda line that the opposition was peddling.
A second reason why the PPPC is afraid to give in to demands for public inquiries is because they believe that to do so amounts to an admission of failure or shortcoming. In failing however to have more public inquiries, the government is committing a bigger failure and exposing a more serious shortcoming in governance. No government is perfect. And there will be mistakes and missteps made. These cannot always be avoided. What is important is not trying to deny or cover up these shortcomings and mistakes. What is important is how problems are dealt with when they arise. Good governance is not about being perfect. Good governance is not about not making mistakes. Good governance is about what is done when mistakes are made. That is the litmus test of good governance.
The third reason why the PPPC is generally unresponsive to demands for inquiries is because they feel that they are in a zero-sum game in local politics. For the PPPC, anything that they have to do in response to a call for the opposition parties represents a gain for those parties and a loss for them. The PPPC cannot yet contemplate that in responding to demands by the opposition parties, the government can come out looking far better because it would demonstrate that what exists is a responsive and responsible government.
A fourth reason for the dismissive approach adopted by the government springs from the political psychology of a ruling class. It is almost always the case that the longer a government is in power, the more contemptuous it becomes of its critics. The longer a government is in power its begins to adopt the approach that it and it alones knows best and therefore no one should offer it advice as to what to do because it is the ruling party that knows best. This is not a communist trait. It is a trait of parties all around the world that have been in power for too long.
Recently there was a call by GAWU, the main recognized union in the sugar industry. It has called for inquiries into certain matters in the industry. The PPPC is making a huge mistake in ignoring these calls because it lost its majority because of the way it treated the demands of sugar workers.
Right now the industry is going in a different direction to the turnaround plan developed for the sector. Instead of reducing the cost of production, the cost of making sugar has increased. Instead of more cane being produced, less is being produced. There is a need to examine what has happened in the industry and to determine the way forward. If money can be found to bring closure to the assassination of Walter Rodney, then money can be found to inquire as to the debacle of Skeldon and the prospects for the sugar industry.
Such an inquiry will make the PPP look good. An inquiry ensures that the problems of the industry cannot be used as a political football in the upcoming election campaign because the government will indicate that it is inquiring into the industry. If the government cannot see the good sense in having this inquiry it does not deserve to be reelected.
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