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FM
Former Member

Dr. Roopnaraine’s demotion constitutes an attack on the WPA

Jun 24, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....n-attack-on-the-wpa/

The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) would be naïve to believe that the demotion of Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine is in any way remotely connected to his performance as Minister of Education, his failing health, or the findings of a Commission of Inquiry into the education sector. None of these reasons can hold up to scrutiny.

Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine has not been a non-performer. He has been one of the better Ministers. There are other ministers who have failed miserably or have performed worse than Dr. Roopnaraine, and they have not been demoted.

There have been Ministers who have been embroiled in public scandals and they have not been removed. There have been concerns that some Ministers are not functioning properly. They are still in their portfolios.
The President has gone as far as defending some of the Ministers in the face of serious public criticisms over their actions, including one Minister against whom a complaint was lodged. Performance, therefore, cannot be the reason why Dr. Roopnaraine was removed from the Ministry of Education.

Illness also cannot be a reason. There have been other Ministers who have been ill, some seriously ill. They have not been given a reduced workload. There is also no evidence that Dr. Roopnaraine is unable to function as Minister of Education. If anything, in terms of the volume of work that he will be required to undertake within the Public Service Ministry, there is just as much work to be done there as in the Ministry of Education.

This brings us to the question of the Commission of Inquiry into the education sector, and one particular finding which has been made public: the need for reform and innovation.

This is not a new development. In fact, one of the leading advocates of the need for reform has been Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine. This is one of the reasons why he initiated a Commission of Inquiry into education. It would be ironic if he became a victim of his own initiative.

One therefore has to look for another reason why Dr. Roopnaraine was removed. That reason can only be political. That reason can only be that the WPA leaders outside of the government were playing by the rules which APNU, aka PNCR, wanted of it, and since Dr. Roopnaraine could place no lid on criticisms of the government, he had to be made an example, so that the WPA would fall in line. This is a typical military tactic – it is a strategic strike.

WPA leaders, especially Dr. David Hinds, have been prepared to call a spade a spade. Dr. Hinds has praised the coalition when he thought they did well, but he has criticized them when they have messed up – and there is hardly a week which goes by that the coalition government has not messed up.

Dr. Roopnaraine, it would seem, has paid the price for the outspokenness of the WPA leadership which is outside of the government. It is hard for a party like the PNCR to accept that it is in a coalition with other parties and yet can be subject to public criticism from those parties.

Guyanese will recall that Burnham had used criticism of his government, published in a column in the Mirror newspaper, as the pretext for calling off power-sharing talks with the PPP after the Grenada invasion.

The PNC is a party which cannot accept internal nor external criticisms from parties with which it is aligned. It views such conduct as a breach of trust. The demotion of Dr, Roopnaraine, for all intents and purposes, constitutes a response to the criticisms which had been emanating from sources within the WPA.

The demotion of Dr. Roopnaraine constitutes an attack on the WPA. If the party is naïve enough not to recognize this, it will end up far more discredited than it did when it jumped into bed with the PNCR with the ingenious ‘confession’ that the WPA was preparing to wage war against the PNC just prior to Rodney’s death.

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Dr. Roopnaraine’s demotion constitutes an attack on the WPA

Jun 24, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....n-attack-on-the-wpa/

The PNC is a party which cannot accept internal nor external criticisms from parties with which it is aligned. It views such conduct as a breach of trust. The demotion of Dr, Roopnaraine, for all intents and purposes, constitutes a response to the criticisms which had been emanating from sources within the WPA.

 

PNC is pursuing its objective, similar to the PNC -  United Force in the late 1960's; removing its partners to be the only party in government.

FM

If the WPA moves in the right direction, this move by Granger can completely wipe out the PNC from Guyana politics. And quite possibly do away with the PPP as well.

The Almighty moves in mysterious  ways. 

S

Roopnaraine has been demoted

By Staff Writer On June 16, 2017 @ 2:09 am In Letters

Dear Editor,

Dr David Hinds may be tugging at straws when he asked in the press for a meeting between the WPA and President David Granger. There is no need for such a meeting.  The Granger government marketed the APNU+AFC brand in 2015 for deceptive purposes.  In actual substance, this government is a PNC-led Granger administration. Everyone else is a ‘tag along’. In such circumstances, the now much discredited WPA and AFC should understand their roles today; they are nothing else but political window dressing.

It is unfortunate that Dr Hinds and his colleagues in the WPA did not take on board the Guyanese proverb ‘When two large rum bottle deh ah table, quarter bottle nah gat business deh’.  A government is constructed with a Constitution.  Both the WPA and AFC had power in their hands and they threw it away all because opportunism and perks, and because they were unprepared to be the balance of power.  The rest is history and Guyana is now back to square one, where we only have two large rum bottles on the table – PNC and PPP. There is no place in 2020 for the WPA, AFC, KFC, JFAP, LFC or any third force. The people will reject them all convincingly after observing what the AFC and WPA have turned out to be.  In 2020, Mr Granger can campaign with a 50 party coalition, the Guyanese people will recognize it for what it really is: a PNC dominated, controlled and led electoral machine with some opportunistic individuals stitched on as window dressing.

It is clear as day that the WPA and AFC have now played out their trump cards and they have no choice but to accept their new roles as the 5th wheel to a coach. Would Walter Rodney or Sheila Holder have accepted this political abuse? The WPA and AFC will have to accept the wisdom of my ancestors who advised: “When yuh play out all yuh trump cards, yuh gat to lose till game done”.

It is deeply sad that the occasion of the anniversary of my soul brother Dr Rodney, (whose ideas formed the intellectual soul of the WPA), was chosen by the PNC as the date to formally devour what was left of the WPA in government.  There are positions and there are positions.

The facts will show that Dr Roopnaraine was transferred from a portfolio (Education) that was valued at $43 billion in the 2017 budget to a role that is worth 1/20th or 5% of what he previously managed.  Further, he moves from a portfolio in which he had his own budget, his own ministry, and his own permanent secretary.  Now he is nothing but a department head in Mr Harmon’s Ministry; is part of Mr Harmon’s budget and have to work along with Mr Harmon’s permanent secretary.  He is in no better a position than Moses Nagamootoo who is also subject to similar rules in Mr Harmon’s ministry.

If that is not a demotion then what is?  I like and respect Dr Roopnaraine, more especially for his intellect and gentlemanly attitude.  When he became the Minister of Education, I was proud because here was a man who had served education all his life at all levels and was being given a chance to make policies to change the way we educate our people.  Yes, his success was limited, but do we think his intellectual inferior, inexperienced, and underskilled replacement is any better?

Why was Dr David Hinds not asked to be the new Minister of Education?  Why was someone  who cannot measure up to Dr Roopnaraine or for that matter Dr Hinds on the policy front, on the organizational front, on the intellectual front, for that matter on all fronts, being asked to carry a portfolio that I thought was reserved for the WPA?

But then again, with all things considered, this is a PNC-led Granger administration.

Yours faithfully,

Sase Singh

FM

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