ON Tuesday, we saw Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon, filing motions of no-confidence against two senior ministers of the Irfaan Ali-government.
The motions, he related, had to do with how the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony and the Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and the health sector, and the crime and security sector. In both cases, Harmon alleged mismanagement of monies, incompetence in dealing with the various threats in the sectors, and lack of oversight of the sectors in general.

Harmon, accompanied by the usual opposition parliamentarians, strutted up the stairs of Parliament to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Issacs, and submitted his motions. And within a day, the government struck back, indicating that it will by filing a no-confidence motion against the Opposition Leader for allegedly misleading the House and the public on the COVID-19 vaccines.
The government said that Harmon was responsible for the current level of vaccine hesitancy in several areas of the country and should resign from the post immediately.
This saga is a political drama unfolding before our eyes as the no-confidence motion filed by the Opposition Leader will fail to get approval. The government already has enough support in the numbers to defeat it unless he could convince two of its members to vote against it.

Secondly, Harmon is not intelligent when he chose the time to file these motions of no-confidence against the ministers. He has filed them right in the middle of the global pandemic while Guyana is still staving off the effects of COVID-19.
Thirdly, this motion will give the public the impression that Guyana is in a bind and things are escalating to crisis proportions. Harmon did not think that Hamilton Green would let the ‘cat out of the bag, in the way he did. The public now knows that the PNC Congress, slated for October, is just around when these motions would be heard and debated according to the parliamentary agenda.

Therefore, he wants, or in this case, needs the attention. The PNC leadership contest is heating up, and Harmon is just not liked by the members inside the bosoms of the party. He is hanging by a thread. His leader, David Granger, is being challenged by Volda Lawrence and others. So, he wants to score cheap political points by raising the ants against the PPP. His reputation in politics cannot save him.

Fourthly, the motion that will be filed by the government, if it is allowed, will mark the end of Harmon’s political ambitions to be President or command the rank of the opposition in Parliament. Again, it is the government that has the majority to pass it. Whether or not Harmon will give up the title is not clear.
The government will annihilate and humiliate Harmon if they debate any no-confidence motion.
Finally, Harmon and his advisers should know that these no-confidence motions are untimely and absurd. It will backfire and will not play in their interest at the PNC upcoming Congress.