…AFC hysteria
The AFC leadership – excluding Raphael “Nassau” Trotman, of course! — are beyond desperate trying to make themselves useful to the PNC! They’re fighting not to be kicked to the kerb like the 5700 sugar workers they swore to protect – who were nevertheless thrown aside like used tissue paper. But this time, Nagamootoo’s go-fer literally shot his bosses and party in the foot.
Just when the UN Secretary General did what Guyana’s been fighting for on the Venezuela border controversy for decades – send the matter to the World Court – the AFC accuses Opposition Leader Jagdeo of once suggesting a different route to resolve the controversy. In their column in the Muckraker, “How dare you, Mr Jagdeo? Watch and Learn” they sycophantly lavish praise on PNC leader Granger like he was the Great leader of North Korea, while trying to ambush Jagdeo.
Then refer to the “Guyana-Venezuela border issue”!! We hope Granger bitch-slapped them silly!! Even school kids know we NEVER EVER refer to the matter as an “ISSUE”!! An “issue” has at least two “sides”…and that’s why we call it a “controversy”. There’s no substance to Venezuela’s claim on the border. There is just the CONTROVERSY they’ve created over the validity of the AWARD. This is the fundamental point, and in demonstrating they haven’t grasped it, the AFC proved they’re so hungry for power they’ll say whatever comes to their fevered minds to keep collecting crumbs from the master’s table.
But even more relevant is the bigger point of not muddying the ICJ waters, into which the controversy has now been placed. Why would the AFC try to concoct some sort of division in our NATIONAL position on the issue? We know the AFC want to keep their hand in the cookie jar, but what does Guyana gain? Isn’t this what it should be all about?
But look at what they’re accusing Jagdeo of: that his statement about the possibility of giving the Venezuelans a passage to the Atlantic was one of five options discussed by the PPP, and was a betrayal of Guyana’s position!! The AFC clearly doesn’t understand international diplomacy – especially when they go on to claim “not one single Guyanese Head of State or Government, past or present, had ever uttered words to that effect. Never!”
Really?! How about this report that was carried in the May 1985 issue of Caribbean Conntact by Rickey Singh:
“One Cana-Reuter report actually stated what the great majority of Guyanese have not yet been informed about: that the Burnham Government has been discussing as a possible solution extending Venezuela’s jurisdiction in the Atlantic Ocean for Venezuela’s renunciation of two-thirds of Guyana’s territory in the Essequibo region.”
Did Burnham also betray Guyana?
…Diplomacy
Now, your Eyewitness is sure the AFC and their partisans will say Rickey Singh can’t be trusted where Burnham’s concerned, since he’d fired the reporter. Well how about the interview Burnham gave to Alfredo Peña, from the Venezuelan newspaper, El Nacional on March 1 1985 – from the transcript released by our Foreign Service.
“PEÑA: But right now, the question is being raised – that same kind of proposals that were raised under the Perez government – of a solution; that is, Venezuela’s exit to the Atlantic. Foreign Minister Morales Paul has said that Venezuela would have to have a portion of land and sea for itself.
BURNHAM: We can DISCUSS it. But having an entry into the Caribbean is quite different from owning the land bordering the Caribbean.”
What this shows is Burnham also CONSIDERED the “passage into the Caribbean” – but that doesn’t mean he would’ve gone along.
In diplomacy, one allows all sorts of options on the table. It doesn’t mean you accept them all, AFC wankers!!
