Dear Editor,
Soon after the November, 2011 General Elections, there was a de facto Coalition which began an insatiable quest to gain power at any and all cost.
It was at this time I became a lonely voice crying out in the wilderness against the cronyism and corruption of the AFC and its leaders. It was at this time I saw the complete annihilation of its founding principles, which also became just collateral damage in the course charted by selfishness and greed.
It was at this time that I made a vow to relentless pursue my goals to expose the wrongdoings of the AFC, and to bring about its destruction.
I did not resign from the AFC initially, but fought them internally, and then went public in a crusade that would last for 8 years in my quest to finally bring the AFC to its knees. I was called a “rogue councillor” who was bribed by the PPP, and was labelled a PPP ‘mole’ and then expelled from the AFC in 2012 by Ramjattan.
As I wrote letter after letter, and hosted many TV programmes with the former AFC General Secretary Sixtus Edwards and former member Balwant Persaud, I witnessed the cracks and fissures appearing, as one high profile member after another began to break ranks with the AFC, finally seeing the naked truth in what I was exposing. These high-profile members were not only from the local scene, but from the diaspora as well, moreso Canada and the USA. These had heavily funded the AFC from the time of its formation, and became compelled to engage in the exposure of the AFC crooks.
After coalescing with the APNU in 2015, many more high-profile AFC members left, including Ramayya and the famous NCM voter Charandass Persaud. Then, during the 5-month siege of our democracy, Executive member and former Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, quit. It became clear that the few remaining voices of conscience within the AFC could no longer bear to stand by as the AFC discarded its founding principles and became a part of the PNC of old.
The AFC became as corrupt as, if not more corrupted than, the PNC which dominated the APNU. At least the Justice for All Party and the WPA have mustered some scruples and have decided to break ranks with the Coalition; but not the AFC, they have persisted doggedly, swallowing all shame. They have become totally consumed by the PNC, and have lost all individuality and identity.
But above all, the AFC have become impervious to criticism; their leaders have become mindless puppets. The PNC had no problem awarding them 9 seats as a token of their utter subservience.
Today, I am again vindicated, as yet another high-profile member of the AFC resigned. Gobin Harbhajan was a member for 15 years, and was the PM’s Representative for Berbice for 5 years, and had tried to weather the ongoing storm which had engulfed the AFC, but his honesty and diligence had no place in a party which can no longer even face the people or represent any issue on their behalf.
AFC are a party which partnered with the PNC to attempt to blatantly rig the 2020 Elections, and until now are still claiming that it is the PPP/C which has committed electoral fraud. Ramjattan and Trotman have become Congress Place choir boys. Fortunately, Harbhajan has now come to full realisation that it is impossible to change the corrupt leaders of the AFC and their cohorts, since they had been enjoying the good life for the last 5 years, and will never be able to move away from their dishonest lifestyles.
There is simply no place for honesty or honest people within the AFC. Harbhajan took a long time to realise that country is not first for the AFC. Just go back to 2011 and beyond, when they joined with the PNC to make the country ungovernable under the pretence of trying to save Guyana.
Today, the AFC is just the most hated nomenclature to Guyanese, who will never pardon them for the stance they have taken and the support given to the PNC even when the entire democratic world cried foul against the Coalition and their repeated attempts to rig. The AFC and their leaders have failed to deliver on their promise to hold their bigger partner accountable.
Ramjattan’s prophecy of ‘dead meat’ is still reverberating in every nook and cranny, and the curse is still alive.
Today, I can proudly quote M.K. Gandhi, who said: “Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth”. The destruction of the AFC started with a ‘minority of one’.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
