Govt failing “miserably” to honour campaign promises – former PM

By Michael Younge

The A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU-AFC) coalition Government is failing miserably to honour its campaign promises to the Guyanese electorate as it continues to perform poorly as far as governance, accountability, and transparency are concerned.

This is the position of former President and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who stressed that after three years in office, it was clear that the coalition was unable to fulfil many of the promises it had made on the campaign trail ahead of the May 2015 General and Regional Elections.
“I think that the campaign was based on a lot of promises and accusations, which were just words…Maybe they didn’t know what to expect when they entered Government, but they haven’t delivered on their promises,” he said.
Hinds also stated that the Government’s accusations of widespread People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) corruption were proving to be a fishing expedition as the coalition has been unable to substantiate claims in that respect with hard evidence.
The former Prime Minister maintained that the coalition Government should seriously explore the idea of returning to the people for a new mandate in order to restore public confidence in its ability to govern and transform the country’s poorly-performing economy.
“Even in areas where they have not performed any better (than the PPP), they should return to the polls to seek a new mandate. In fact, I think that people should demand that the coalition seeks a new mandate,” Hinds said on Friday during the exclusive interview.
Asked whether he was concerned by the arguments and propositions put forward by several political and ethnic groupings that he was merely a token used by the PPP for window-dressing purposes, Hinds responded in the negative.
He said while he could understand the sentiments being expressed, his career in public service coupled with his quiet yet effective work of representing Lindeners before and after he joined the PPP, spoke volumes about his accomplishments as Prime Minister and President of Guyana.
Hinds, who was Donald Ramotar’s Prime Ministerial Candidate back in 2011, said that the Guyanese people were wise and intelligent, and they knew what he stood for as a public figure.
He said that ultimately Guyanese were supportive of leaders who were hard workers and understanding as well as compassionate.
Hinds’ statement comes on the heels of similar sentiments expressed by former Finance Minister Juan Edghill over the weekend which suggest that the Government is becoming desperate in its actions and attacks on the media, because it knows it is losing electorate support even though it continues to blow its own trumpet.
Edghill, like Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, has pointed out that supporters of the coalition are becoming impatient, disillusioned and disconnected from the leadership of the coalition, which is finding itself in a series of controversies and scandals which have affected its reputation since coming to office in 2015.