Changing… tactics?

In politics – like life in general – you gotta deal with the world in which you find yourself!! Or else you’ll be battling non-existent dragons and get your head handed on a platter by some loser from left field!! So now the four political parties that earned seats have hopefully absorbed the implications of a new order of political forces that’s gonna show up in parliament sometime in the next few weeks, what are we to expect?? One of Eric Williams’ famous statement when he launched the 30-year- long reign of the PNM in Trinidad back in 1956 was: “fighting in the streets is over and politics in Parliament will now begin”.
Sadly, for us in Guyana, his contemporary Burnham – who’d escalated his “fighting in the streets” in Guyana to a literal racial civil war to get into power – never weaned his party to confine politics to the civilized rules of Parliament. In fact, with them rigging elections from 1968 to 1985 – by bringing in the army to seize ballot boxes and murdering civilians in the process – they expanded the arena of violence!! Parliamentary democracy for the PNC was aways interpreted cynically – with a wink and a blow to the solar plexus of the other political players. Rodney comes to mind.
When they were ousted after 28 years, the PNC’s violent street politics returned without skipping a beat!! Guyana knew no peace between 1997 to 2008 – with present PNC leader Aubrey Norton in the thick of things! Then, when they recalibrated, changed their name to APNU, went into a coalition with the AFC and returned to power, there was hope they’d learnt a lesson. But in 2020 it became clear they just couldn’t keep on the straight and narrow. The folk wisdom predicts that once canines start “sucking egg”, they just can’t stop! New leader Norton didn’t even acknowledge some hanky-panky had gone down – and tried rubbing PNC’s doodie on PPP’s bamsie!!
Well, he’s been whittled down to playing second fiddle to Sanction Man’s WIN and we’ll just have to wait and see if he’ll be willing to play from the same music score!! The challenge, of course, is Sanction Man doesn’t even have a music score – and prefers to march to his own drummer!! We can therefore expect some serious cacophony – if not weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth! – coming out of the Public Buildings or the Convention Center, when they gather to palaver over our future!!
Can you, Dear Reader, see Sanction Man addressing the PPP and PNC MPs as “my honourable friends”?? Or sit in the Parliamentary Standing Committees – when he, knowing nothing about Parliament –insists he HAS to stand??!!
It’s gonna be a hard days night!!

…to One Guyana
In our One Guyana with every one having an equal place, it was heartening to see that even as Amerindian Heritage Month would down after an explosion of activities display their culture, the new Min of Tourism – in collaboration with the Chinese Association – announced that Hope Town on the Kamuni Creek up the Linden Highway has been identified as a Heritage Tourist Site!!
To those who’re worried about the Chinese and what they’re up to in our neck of the world, they aren’t any “johnny-come-lately” in our fair(?) mudland just building substandard supermarkes!!. .
In the 1850s, a Chinese missionary was facilitated by the colonial government to start a settlement on the Kamuni Creek with time-expired Chinese indentureds. They used the timber to produce coal for the fast-growing Georgetown urban dwellers.
The settlement unfortunately collapsed after the Missionary absconded with the settlement funds! The settlers moved to Georgetown – especially in the Charlestown area – and went into commerce.
Bring back Hope Town!!

…international order
The UN offered the illusion that we could influence the grand scheme of things. Didn’t we have a vote?? Well Israel in Gaza hopefully has destroyed that illusion. Might is right – and we need more might!!