ANUG’s new leadership postures
Dec 21, 2024
Kaieteur News- Partisan politics should be on a lesser scale; transparency must be so steady that it is credible. This is the call from the new slate of Guyanese elected to go into 2025-2026 at the helm of A New and United Guyana (ANUG). In addition, ANUG urged the main opposition to be mindful of how it uses criticisms of the PPP/C Government’s actions. Dialogue and solutions should be inseparable aspects of the opposition’s overarching participation in the democratic process.
The intensity of partisan politics in Guyana is ruinous to any visions about national unity. The PPP/C Government has a duty to lower the partisan heat that’s now accepted as normal. The best way to manifest this is for leaders to tone down their rhetoric. The insulting manner in which government leaders deal with the opposition in general, and critical citizens specifically, only lend to deeper acrimony and more polarization. No reasonable individual, no Guyanese that truly loves this country, could be at home with what passes as government’s public narratives and postures. The PPP/C Government leadership may pretend that it owns the high ground on the issue of raw partisanship that roils. The record is there to prove that government leaders don’t own any high ground. If there still is disagreement, then they must come up with persuasive arguments about why they are always dividing Guyana into ‘us’ vs ‘them’. Why there is this continual reference to what the PPP/C is doing today, as opposed to what the APNU+AFC did close to five years ago? This is most unhealthy for an unsettled polity like Guyana, a fledgling democracy that is still struggling to find its comfort zone.
We feel comfortable in asserting this without fear about the openly raucous nature of the government and its leaders. There are enough of the experiences of KN’s own people that stand as proof.
Also, the new ANUG executive called for more transparency from the government on how it spends tax dollars. Oil is bringing in billions of US dollars, and the government must do better than deal in vague generalities such as “national development priorities.” The government is clearly deceiving itself when it holds onto the position that it is being generous with information that Guyanese need to know. National development priorities don’t say much of anything and, to be blunt, serves as the best possible disguise for all the skulduggeries that have this country in an unshakeable grip. This is a sore point for the government, one it prefers not to hear, and not infrequently uses its power to go after Guyanese who attract its wrath. The game of righteous indignation long played by some of the more senior PPP/C Government is not only misplaced, but a joke. Matters are only made worse by retaliatory leadership rhetoric, since fewer are the citizens that place any faith in its defences. There is only one way that facilitates the degree of transparency now compulsory in Guyana. The business of the government, the projects, must be done cleanly, with qualified people selected to deliver them. Once government leaders can stop their farces, be honest with themselves (and supporters), there is a chance of some appreciation for what true transparency means, and it doesn’t deteriorate to a running controversy on delivering.
The fresh ANUG leadership team noted the positives that exist in Guyana’s journalistic ranks today, and raised the bar on expectations. Dr. Mark France, ANUG’s new leader, emphasized the ongoing need for ‘unfiltered and unbiased information’ disseminated to the public. It is encouraging that ANUG took this stance, because journalism by professionals have come in for a long and unrelenting battering from PPP/C Government leaders. In fact, for more than a few seasons now, journalism in Guyana has been characterized by the sharply partisan and the biased. Official distortions and cover-ups have become routine, with quality oil information suffering the most. When taxpayers’ dollars are used by those with the power to attack the independent media, and the media is turned into distrustful camps, then it is obvious that there is much work to be done.
One ANUG partner didn’t do the group well. The hope is that this new team will represent what is different.
(ANUG’s new leadership postures)
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