Making promises to people is the bread-and-butter business of political parties. But when it comes to keeping promises, there are very few countries in the world like Guyana, where we see the kind of starkly different track records of turning promises into reality.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose; meaning: the more things change, the more they stay the same. This saying is attributed to French critic Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, and it applies to many things.
In every budget presentation and debate since 1992, the PPP MPs speak glowingly of the promises they made and kept. MPs from the PNC, AFC, WPA and other small parties make more audacious promises they never have kept when in government, and never intended to keep. In fact, the APNU and AFC political parties are most known for doing exactly the opposite of what they promise. That has been Guyana’s constant reality.
There are studies around the world which show that political parties keep between 45% and 67% of the promises they made once they are elected. It is a surprising finding, considering that most people think political parties do not keep their promises. Guyana’s experience reveals both sides to be true. The PPP has a sterling record of keeping most of its promises. The PNC, AFC, WPA and some small parties keep little to none of their promises.
Mongosuthu Buthelezi once said: “Others may make you promises, once again, and then, election after election, not deliver. We will not do this.” This summarizes the PPP.
In every election since its establishment, the PPP has outlined its promises in a manifesto, and frequently reported, including in its national budgets, to the nation how it has transformed its manifesto promises into public policy and into public action.
The PNC, AFC, WPA and other small parties in Guyana fall into a category described by Nikita Khrushchev, a former President of the former Soviet Union, who infamously said, “Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges where there are no rivers.” A US Supreme Court Judge, Anthonin Scalia, once said that “campaign promises are – by long democratic tradition – the least binding form of human commitment.” The PNC, AFC, WPA and other small parties hold this notion as sacred.
The track record of the PNC, AFC, WPA and the several “one-man” or “one-woman” political parties who banded themselves under the name APNU is that they promise everything under the sun, with no intention to keep them.
In Parliament, in closing the Opposition’s rebuttal of Budget 2025, the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, was in good form, making promises he knows he cannot keep. He adopted the “auction” strategy. Whatever the PPP promised or included in its public policy or in its work programme, he promised to do bigger. He promised, for instance, that his party would immediately start a programme of disbursing monthly $100,000 per family, in addition to an annual $100,000 per adult over 18 years old. Together, this promise, if delivered, would be almost 50% of Budget 2025. But his plan to do so also involves increasing the threshold from $130,000 per month to $400,000 per month, reducing the tax rate and reducing VAT.
This is the same group that increased more than 200 taxes between 2015 and 2020, and infamously told Guyana and the world that 33 is not more than 32. As if the above promises are not big enough, they would also give a 35% pay increase to every public servant, and more than double the pension: from $41,000 to $100,000 per month. We have to assume they believe that if you will falsely promise, go really big. Those who have no intention of keeping their promises, this is what they do. They promise you the sun, the moon and the stars, knowingly making false promises.
The PNC-led APNU/AFC complain that the PPP government is using up too much of the Natural Resource Fund. Yet, the “oil” fund is just 37% of Budget 2025. So, if they, as promised, would not use the “oil” money, and would reduce taxes and borrowing; where will they find money to pay public servants; to build roads and bridges; schools, hospitals and housing schemes; provide better electricity and water, etc.?
They condemn the PPP’s expansive physical infrastructure programme with the asinine argument that “people don’t eat roads and bridges”, but they then promise “whatever the PPP builds, we will do bigger”.
They now propose to build four bridges across the Essequibo River. These charlatans who squatted five years in Government, building only Durban Park and a few arches; not one road, not one bridge, not one housing scheme, not one school, not one hospital, now promise to build multiples river bridges and highways around Guyana.
The Opposition promised before to give public servants and sugar workers a 20% pay increase within 100 days of getting into Government, then they froze sugar workers’ wages for five years, and gave the public servants an average of about 6% annual salary increase. Now they promise 35% increase immediately, and that they would immediately increase the threshold to $400,000 per month. They did in 2015 also when they promised to double the threshold from $50,000 per month to $100,000 per month, or 100% within the first 100 days; then only increased it to $65,000 over five years, an average annual increase of 6%. They now promise to increase monthly old-age pension to $100,000 on day one, but had also promised to double the pension from $15,000 to $30,000 in 2015, a 100% increase on day one. When they had a chance in 2015, pension increased from $15,000 per month to $20,500 per month, an annual increase of 7%, compared to the 100% increase at day one.
Above all, else they promised never to rig another election, but gave the world the “most transparent election rigging attempt ever”. For almost five years now, they promised to show us their SOPs. Anyone holding their breath?
