Coalition Governments are commonly defined by politicians’ ability to bring together several political parties, whose ambitions are predominantly to reduce dominance in an aim to achieve the goal of development of a nation.
For us here in Guyana, when the Cummingsburg Accord was signed on February 14, 2015, between the Alliance For Change (AFC) and the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), great promises were made to Guyanese. This, debatably, led to the new coalition Government winning the 2015 elections. Two years later, as Guyanese face bread-and-butter issues, the coalition Government now appears to be divided on frontal matters, which in a greater way affect the livelihood of citizens.
In the lead-up to the elections in 2015, AFC, the smaller arm of the coalition, made a number of public promises to the Guyanese public, which portrayed an image of efficiency and leadership. Having joined with APNU and sitting together in decision-making meetings for the nation, the AFC now appears to be divorcing itself from some of those very decisions it made.
In its most recent apparent division, the AFC informed some of the protesters who are highlighting the burdens of the decision to impose VAT on education that nine AFC Government Ministers will on Monday meet with them to discuss the best strategies to be employed to reverse the new tax regime.
But was AFC not part of the decision-making process that led to the implementation of this burdensome tax on education? If this was always the AFC’s position, why did Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo not make this clear when he met with stakeholders at the National Cultural Centre. As a matter of fact, it was Nagamootoo who announced at that meeting that the burdensome tax would not be removed in 2017, but rather there was a possibility that it would be reviewed in 2018. It was this that led to the stakeholders understandably walking out of the meeting.
Now, just about two weeks later, the AFC is trying to convince Guyanese that its position on VAT on education is different from APNU’s. It was the same AFC which sat and voted jointly with APNU for the imposition of this burdensome tax on education during the 2017 Budget debate in the National Assembly.
In the parking meter fiasco, the AFC sat futilely and it was only when citizens stood strong against the project that it then publicly denounced that project. However, again the AFC displayed traits of hypocrisy on that issue as it did not support the parking meter motion, which was tabled in the National Assembly by the Opposition.
The motion had called for a debate on the transparency of the project, method of procurement involved, terms and conditions of the contract, and the overall lack of consultancy with stakeholders. This is the second time around that the AFC is claiming to be an innocent party divorcing itself from the collective decision by its Government.
The implementation of the VAT on education has severe impacts on the lives of citizens and more so the ability to educate our nation and, as such, Guyanese cannot allow the AFC to make this critical issue a political football nor a PR gimmick.
The AFC must take responsibility and be held equally accountable for the implementation of this burdensome tax. The time has come for the AFC to stop using citizens’ real burdens as a PR tool and accept blame for its failures.
