…and fall
Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is one of your Eyewitness’s favourite plays which he had to delve into when he was but a mere callow youth. It goes without saying, of course, that much of the Bard’s wisdom was lost on him then, but enough stuck, so that whenever he hears the name “Duncan” – the King murdered by the ambitious Macbeth – he’s reminded of how ambition can corrupt a man and make him lose his bearings.
So when your Eyewitness opened the morning newspapers as saw that, before jetting off to NY, Nagamootoo had dropped a bombshell by instructing the Chronicle’s Board to reinstate his man Duncan as the General Manager, what else could he think but that ambition was once again running amok in Guyana?
Macbeth’s ambition was spurred by his interpretation of some witches’ incantations that one day he’d be king. Nagamootoo’s ambition – in his own words – was spurred by his interpretation of a response by Jagan at a Rupununi meeting to a question about who’d succeed him when he went to the hereafter.
Jagan had waved his hand towards the back of the stage where Nagamootoo and some others were sitting and replied airily, not to worry, the PPP had several persons who could be leader! This Nagamootoo took to be his anointment as Jagan’s successor!! But just as how Macbeth didn’t realise the witches’ incantations were actually a prediction of his demise, Nagamootoo, in his ambition, also heard what he wanted to hear!! He tried every which way in the PPP to fulfil his overweening ambition to become President, but ended up being thrown out on his ear!!
It was here that his old fellow Berbician Ramjattan, who’d also departed the PPP to help found the AFC, had stretched out a hand and offered him a lifeline to electoral politics – a spot on the AFC ticket in 2011. By 2015 he had become the PM nominee for the APNU/AFC coalition, and we all know how he was subsequently spayed and shafted. But his ambition for “titles” is such that, rather than stepping aside for Ramjattan in the next election, he’s willing to “murder” him – and everyone else in his path. Much like Macbeth!!
And we now can understand his reinstatement of Duncan at the Chronic, even though three directors have resigned at his unethical highhandedness. Duncan is in “his” camp. Ditto for his intervention to have his DPI flunkey and wife be delegates to the AFC Convention to select the PM candidate.
Leaving nothing to chance, Nagamootoo, in NY, tied bundle with rabid PNCiter Rickford Burke to influence the youth demographic.
But Nagamootoo should remember Macbeth’s ignominious end: his head was severed by his opponent Macduff!!
…and the Peace Corps
John F. Kennedy was a dyed-in-the wool liberal, but he had to prove his “toughness” to his domestic audience; hence an intervention in Vietnam, an attempted regime change in Cuba, and a more successful one here. But he also ambitiously launched the “Peace Corps”, a group of idealistic young Americans out of college who were to be dispatched to the less developed world to expose it to a “gentler, friendlier” America.
The first batch arrived in 1966 after we became independent, as the Burnham PNC, which had been the beneficiary of the American helping hand to sneak into office, cozied up to the US Administration. With his leftward shift after we became a Republic, when he concocted his “co-operative socialist” path, he refused to accept the volunteers after 1971. But in those five years, the Peace Corps had made quite an impression with many Guyanese youths, including your Eyewitness.
It wasn’t until 1995 that Jagan reinstated the Peace Corps programme, showing he had no hard feelings.
Another 30 Peace Corps volunteers have just arrived, and your Eyewitness welcomes them!!
…and GECOM
As he’s pointed out before, the PNC’s motto is: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
So, c’mon fellas, will HtH registration take nine months (GECOM PRO), or 4 months (PNC Commissioner)??
