Continued demonstration of a lack of political maturity by PNCR-led Coalition

Political maturity in democratic societies is characterized by the related attitudes, resonating and action by players in the political arena.

In Guyana, the PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition had demonstrated a lack of political maturity that continues to hurt our society, including the very constituents the Parliamentary Opposition purports to represent.

In the wake of a national tragedy, the loss of 19 young Guyanese in a horrific fire at the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory, early signals form the PNCR-led Coalition of a measured approach, evident in the initial statement on the incident, vanished within hours.

In an unconscionable move, leader of the PNCR and the APNU+AFC Coalition, Aubrey Norton, took to Trinidad and Tobago’s TV6 to peddle rants in a transparent bid to score cheap political point at the expense of those grieving. Norton opted to position a national tragedy next to the spending of oil money and criticising the PPP/C government for spending on infrastructure. On May 23, 2023, Norton said: “At a time when Guyana has oil resources – and you know we’ve been very critical of the government putting a lot of the resources into big infrastructure, in terms of building buildings etc.”

Soon enough his party members followed suit. The worst of all was probably the ramblings of the Coalition Parliamentarian and General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), Coretta McDonald, who attempted to equate the tragedy to issues that are beyond the control of government –issues that include accidents on the roadways. McDonald who opted to focus on money, on May 22, 20223, said: “Billions upon billions of dollars are being doled out at every budget. Plus, we’re having supplementary budgets, more billions of dollars, many more. And this is what we as a people have to go through. You go to bed at nights, in the middle of your sleep, you’re hearing something.”

This type of behaviour is not new to Guyanese. The Norton-led APNU+AFC Coalition was engaged in the same shameful display of irresponsibility as they manipulated a straight-forward situation and seven Guyanese families in a politically opportunistic play. This was evidenced by the Coalition’s actions at Caneview, Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, where seven persons squatting on state lands refused to relocate, despite government’s offer of housing, farm lands and support, in one case, to complete construction of a home. Notably, a total of 28 families were relocated with new homes built, though a government compensation programme. Norton and Coalition Parliamentarians were on the ground with commentary that exacerbated tensions. At one point, the excavator doing the demolition was set on fire. There is no place in Guyana, according to Ali, for the divisions that the PNCR-led Coalition would encourage in society.

In each of these cases, the words of President Ali has made it clear that: “The PNC-led APNU+AFC has demonstrated time and time again that it is incapable of offering meaningful leadership to their constituents or anyone for that matter, and is therefore in its familiar obstructionist mode with racism being its tool of choice” – rings true.

If the PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition is interested in representing Guyanese and serving the national interests – not the so far demonstrated interest in power – it must develop some level of political maturity.

Importantly, at each turn: one, there must be recognition that the PNCR-led Coalition’s mask of political hypocrisy is used for sinister, self-interested purposes; two, every effort has to be made to expose and condemn these instances of hypocritical posturing; and three, the associated, inherent, risk of misinformation must be underscored, given the societal disruptions this can potentially cause, if left unchecked.