By Sase Singh; M.Sc. – Finance, ACCA.
Critical Local Government Elections (LGE) are coming up, and the stakes for the David Granger Presidency are extremely high. First off, these are not a “mid-term” kind of elections anymore; these LGEs are a real litmus test on the Granger Presidency.
In 2016, the PNC won 14 of the 15 constituent seats and 11 of the 15 proportionate representative seats in Georgetown. Can they repeat such a performance in November 2018? The political signs at this point in time clearly expose that “things nah regula” for the PNC even before the teachers’ strike. Therefore it is difficult to comprehend why the PNC leaders are so bent on ignoring, antagonising and attacking the teachers since April 2018. Is this a case of the PNC Leaders feeling that they have the power to operate with a feigned attitude, as if they have prescriptive titles over the teachers and thus they can do
what they want with them?
Well, congratulations to the teachers and their union (GTU), because they have provided quite a shock to the PNC Leadership. The doors of accountability have now been opened very wide, as more Guyanese are now questioning the words of the leaders in the Granger regime. The majority of people voted in May 2015 for change and better governance, but what these teachers have exposed is that, instead of change, the population has gotten arrogance, aloofness, intolerance, financial waste, and public squander of the resources in the Treasury.
When people lined up in the sun to vote for the PNC-led Coalition in 2015, they voted for greater accountability and transparency. What they got instead was a push for an ex-GDF Commander with credibility issues rather than the elevation of the leading professional in the judiciary (Justice Cummings) to be the next Chancellor. What the people got is another ex-GDF Commander who is failing at the largest state hospital, rather than the services of a hospital professional, Mr. Michael Khan. What the people got was another ex-GDF Commander who has not even distributed 500 house lots properly over 3 years, instead of the stellar services of a housing expert (Ms. Myrna Pitt) who delivered to the people an average of 3,500 house lots per year over a 15-year period. Can you see the trend?
Mr. Granger’s continued impertinence and poor executive performance reinforce this trend, and he will not stop unless and until the people of Guyana speak to him firmly and directly at the ballot boxes. That is why these LGEs are not ordinary elections, but a referendum on the Granger Presidency.
This teachers’ strike was a Great Awakening of the kind that Guyana has not seen in a very long time. The millennials have moved in to take their rightful place as the largest group in the voting population. It is these youths who are really pushing this teachers’ strike; just watch the videos for the evidence.
But who are these millennial?
Millennials are people born between 1981 and 1996. From the graph below, they are now the largest voting bloc in the upcoming LGE, and most likely in 2020. Their combined force is about 46% of the voting population.
As the graph revealed, the so-called Silent Generation (over 75 years old) is only 3% of the voting population, while the Baby Boomers are 17%. The combined strength of the Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation is some 20% of the voting population, yet this combined group controls almost 89% of the executive positions in the State Sector since Mr. Granger assumed the Presidency — be it the Cabinet or respective Heads of Department. The fact remains that Mr. Granger’s Government is a very old one, and is very out-of-touch with the ambitions and dreams of the millennials and first-time voters (the youths).
If the Middle Aged Group is added to the youths, they constitute some 82% of the voters today, but yet only control 11% of the executive positions in this Granger regime. Extrapolating from these trends exposes the political drift in present-day Guyana.
If one observed the outcome from the PNC Congress, the male geriatric Afro-Guyanese dominated its newly appointed Central Executive. Between the 2016 and 2018 Congresses, the population of geriatrics expanded on the PNC Central Executive by 2, while the youths and women lost a combined number of 4 seats. Guess who also gained 2 seats? The band of ex-army, ex-police officers!
Is the PNC swiftly becoming a yesterday party?
Conclusion
So who really is Mr. Granger bargaining with come November 2018?
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