– to push for a more ‘forceful role’ in the coalition

THE Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has formally announced that it will contest the upcoming General and Regional Elections as a member of the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.

The WPA, which is a junior partner in APNU, is convinced that a multiparty government is a superior option for the management of the budding oil and gas economy.
According to the party, the coalition is in theory, if not practice, one step closer to the desired government of national unity.

“Towards this end, WPA views the coalition as a political force that offers the better chance for the realisation of our party’s vision for Guyana’s development and true liberation from the clutches of underdevelopment,” said WPA member, Ali Majeed, during a press conference on Friday.

Majeed said WPA has already signed onto the coalition’s core principles, but given its experience in the first term, it has decided to make alterations to its formal engagement with the coalition government.

The WPA intends to be more proactive, in and out of government should the coalition win. The party intends to continue to balance its independence and traditional political values with its responsibility as part of a plural government.

“We have already begun to play an active role…we have held 10 public meetings and we were surprised when we got into the communities, the level of support…they would make fun of us and say we have five members but we have hundreds now,” said WPA Executive Member, Dr. David Hinds.

In 2015, because of the “euphoria” that was there when the APNU+AFC won the elections, WPA decided to hold back from critiquing the government because the party believed that it would have disappointed supporters.

“This time around, some supporters have expressed disappointment in what has happened and we want to give those supporters a voice,” said Dr. Hinds, adding that the WPA will push for a more forceful role in the coalition.

Amending the Cummingsburg Accord, the February 14 agreement that brought the APNU+AFC together ahead of the 2015 elections, is one way of promoting greater inclusivity, Dr. Hinds posited.

Although Dr. Hinds said the WPA has not given much thought to the accord, he feels that there should be more participation by all parties within the coalition.
“For instance, some supporters are saying AFC got more than they deserved and the WPA got less…so we imagine that they would come to conclusions that would be fair to all parties,” said the WPA executive.

He believes that the last agreement created a “lopsided” kind of arrangement within the coalition, so the second round of the accord should promote inclusivity.
Dr. Hinds also called for a reassessment of the APNU Charter, which binds the five parties together, because the stakeholders have not looked at that charter since the 2015 elections.

With the aim of being forceful and active, the WPA did an evaluation of the coalition government and concluded that the performance has been mixed.
The enormous challenges it inherited and the fact that it has not been in office long enough were among factors taken into consideration during the assessment of the coalition’s tenure.

According to Dr. Hinds, among the topics, which could have been made a priority, are constitutional reform and the punishment of elements associated with the past government for corruption.

“We felt there should have been more movement in those areas…but we take our fair share of responsibility for what has gone wrong with the government…we are a junior partner, we have one minister in the only council of government that makes decisions and our representative was there when these decisions were made…We take full responsibility for the shortcomings,” said the WPA executive.

Despite the shortcomings, the WPA feels that the government has done enough to warrant a second term, since there are some important areas of democratic governance and management of the political economy that are comforting and have led to a strengthening of the country as a whole.

Above and beyond the shortcomings, there are “very big things” which government has succeeded in doing, he said.

In support of his position, Dr. Hinds said this is the first government in the history of Guyana that has not gunned down political opponents. He believes that the APNU+AFC government has toned down political fear and by extension fear in society.
He noted too that President David Granger, though not perfect, has brought back dignity to the office of the presidency.

“The fact that you have a leader that exudes dignity is important,” Dr. Hinds said while adding that the government has shown ethnic fairness, something which previous governments had a difficulty doing.

He said there is no doubt that the government has expended a lot of resources in Indigenous communities, while observing that the Portuguese and Chinese business class has not complained about discrimination.

In addition, he said government was careful not to throw Indian Guyanese under the bus and ensured that African Guyanese benefitted in some ways from government policy.
“We would argue that if any group should complain that government has not put particular attention to them, is African Guyanese… but it has shown that government does not have ethnic preference,” Dr. Hinds asserted, noting that those are big things which transformed society.