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Apr 25, 2016 News
– WPA Executive Member
Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Dr. David Hinds is of the belief that the Alliance For Change (AFC) has not only lost its political conviction but seems to be “opportunistic.”
Dr. Hinds made this comment during one of his recent writings. In a recent interview, Kaieteur News asked the University Professor to state why he has come to such a conclusion.
The Executive Member of the WPA explained, “I think they are driven less by the principles which they articulated at their birth and more by what is politically correct. I get the sense that for them, government has become an end rather than a means to achieve the objectives they originally articulated.”
The political activist said that his conclusion is also grounded in the fact that the AFC has not tried hard enough to balance governing with a commitment to reform the broken political process.
Dr. Hinds commented, “My party, the WPA is also not without blame. We have not asserted ourselves enough. We have allowed our junior status to dictate the extent to which we try to influence the direction of the government.”
The WPA Executive Member said that the success of a Coalition Government is predicated on its ability to achieve consensus. For that to happen, Dr. Hinds said that the big partners have to compromise and the junior partners have to assert themselves.
He insists that there must be a balance between government survival and adherence to positive policies aimed at reform.
Dr. Hinds said that he has no doubt that the government has the capacity to do well. He noted however that the parties have to play their respective roles, assert their principles but reach for consensus.
The University Professor then turned his attention to the APNU-AFC as a government. He said that the events of the past few weeks are not about Minister of State, Joe Harmon, even though he was at the centre of the fiasco.
Dr. Hinds said that there is a tendency in Guyana’s political culture to find an individual to blame whether it be the late Former President L.F.S Burnham or Cheddi Jagan.
He explained that individuals matter, but what they represent matters more. In this regard, Dr. Hinds said that the suggestion by the AFC that Harmon perhaps wields too much power is an inadequate diagnosis. He stressed that Harmon is not the problem.
The political activist opined that the problem is that Guyana is in a transformative moment that clashes with a government and state structure and a political leadership that is anything but transformative.
He asserted, “I do not believe the leaderships of the APNU and the AFC understand the enormity of their mandate in terms of correcting the errors of the past.”
Dr. Hinds continued, “The APNU’s dilemma is that it includes elements of a new PNC which is a mix of progressive praxis and elements of the old PNC which are still disposed to domination and hegemony.”
“The WPA, to which I belong, is immobilized by fear—it silences its voice out of fear of being the spoiler and being accused of lacking electoral clout. The AFC has unfortunately evolved into a party bereft of political conviction and instead behaves opportunistically.”
The Executive Member of the WPA said that it is that mix that has produced the dual competing poles of power in the executive, the absence of policy and political councils to inform government, the growing hostility to criticism, the tight control of the state media, the temptation to court discredited elements of the past regime, the confusing relationship to rogue capital, the hesitancy about what to do about past corruption and the overall lack of a vision of where it wants to take the country.
He believes that the government has to come to grips with its historical importance that it is not meant to be just another government. Dr. Hinds opined that the coalition administration has to realize that it was brought into power to break the cycle of authoritarianism and not to reinforce it.
In the meantime, the University professor said that if the nation continues to make Harmon the story, then it will miss the essence of what it is really facing.
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