Dear Editor,
I have noted, with keen interest, a letter in a section of the media, making another call for the formation of a third-force party to hold the Government accountable. This party, according to one letter writer, must comprise of “decent people”.
I have also noted that even though the unaccountability, corruption, mismanagement and large-scale thievery of the Coalition is well documented, the letter writer gave an elaborate list of allegedly “untenable and bad or questionable practices under this government”, and made a passing remark of what pertained under the previous Government.
The corruption and mismanagement under the Coalition are not mere allegations, but indisputable evidence is available.
There is a huge similarity between the contents of the letter in question and what the AFC’s Founding Principles outlined in that party’s Action Plan of 2005. This letter in question spoke as follows: “The coming together of small parties in a new third force might be enough to galvanise meaningful support to displace the two behemoths”. The 2005 AFC Action Plan made similar statements: “Trotman and Ramjattan bemoaned what they described as Guyanese being exploited by the PNC and the PPP, and concluded that neither Party was of any good for Guyana”.
In 2011, the AFC and the PNC had a majority in Parliament, and the PPP became a minority Government. According to the letter writer’s theory, the AFC should have been the “counter-balance against bad governance”, but he admitted that this never took place. He admitted that “The AFC had let us down during its marriage with the PNC. So the nation can no longer depend on it for good governance as a third force”. But was this scenario not clearly visible for all to behold when, after 2011, the AFC fully supported the PNC to derail the PPP Government’s socio-economic policies and make the country ungovernable? And which eventually led to the No Confidence motion?
The AFC was never interested in being a “counter-balance”, and this was as bright as daylight. The AFC simply wanted to be in Government by the shortest route possible. The goal was to cut up the Government and share it. The unsatiated lust for power became paramount to everything else; yet, some Guyanese were so blind that they felt the AFC would have been able to control the excesses that the PNC is noted for, and they voted for the Coalition.
The AFC became as gluttonous as the PNC. Together, the AFC and the PNC embarked on a most notorious journey to bankrupt the Treasury in the shortest time possible. How can any sane-minded individual even try to put the PPP and the PNC in the same light? The PPP, in 23 years, brought Guyana out from being a poor and highly indebted country to a middle-income one. The PNC had devastated the socio-economic fabric of this country.
What happened from 2015 to 2020 during the Coalition’s reign? The PNC and the AFC resumed where the PNC had left off in 1992. How can a reasonable person conclude that the PPP Government is the same as the Coalition?
Where is the evidence? It will take volumes to even outline the vast socio-economic development taking place since the PPP took Office in 2020. The PPP had to undo the countless wrongs of the Coalition, and then resume its developmental policies once again. It is clear that while the Coalition destroys, the PPP builds. They are opposites!
In conclusion, once again there is a call for a third force, and the agenda is quite clear, but will some plead ignorance again? This is not about making the Government accountable, but to aid in the removal of the Government and to resume a PNC dictatorship. Apparently, the PNC is resorting to an old technique. The UF did this, and the AFC perfected it, and now the same old strategy is being put into action.
Everyone knows about Mr Trotman and the Nassau Connection. He never left the PNC, and those “decent people” who are called upon to defect will undoubtedly be the same. Guyanese can be assured of a Third Farce. Maybe some Guyanese have short and selective memories, and the five months of the worst attempts to usher in a dictatorship will be forgotten. Those who do not remember the past…
Yours sincerely,
H Yusuf
