…votes
As he meanders through the “season of goodwill”, your Eyewitness can’t help but notice it appears our politicians have been also bitten by the bonhomie bug!! Over on the Government side, your Eyewitness has already expatiated at length on Prezzie’s performance as Father Christmas!!
So, what has the Opposition been up to?? Not being in government, and not having access to the Consolidated Fund, which has recently been augmented with the formation of the oil-fattened National Resource Fund (NRF) – they’re supposed to show the people who’ll vote in 2025 how much better they could do if they get elected. Now, you gotta feel a wee bit sorry for them, since — with the PPP subsidising the populace like a pork-knocker just out of the bush, and we don’t have much experience with folks spending “like a drunken sailor”!! – they have the tough task of convincing those same people that this mightn’t be the best way to spend the oil windfall!! One thing voters ain’t is willing to look into the future, and not live in the moment!! So, not getting anything to stick on Prezzie, the Opposition’s been emphasizing some activities of his better half – the First Lady. They’re making a big to-do about the recent fund raising “Diamond Ball”. The main complaint was the extravagance of the dresses of the female guests!! But hey!! Do they want sackcloth and ashes?? Now that we’re a petrostate, the fastest growing economy in the world, and mentioned in newspapers worldwide, don’t we have to signal the change?? Why do they think Chinese men now wear Western suits, and their women wear dresses, rather than the old Changshan and Qipao?? Or are they upset at the “blackballing” by one guest, which hit social media?? Hey, we have a young couple at State House; and yes, girls wanna have fun!!
So, what’s the Opposition to do?? Well, one thing your Eyewitness feels can pay off is to emphasise that whatever programmes the Government sponsors, they’re funded with the people’s money. And the Opposition can mobilize Guyanese to take advantage of such programmes, and get credit for smoothing the path of the recipients!!
Take the ongoing distribution of pension books to the 74,000 old folks out there. That’s a formidable voting block!! Couldn’t the Opposition have mobilized transportation for those pensioners?? That would not only have earned the pensioners’ gratitude, but the gratitude of their children!!
We need a good Opposition in our dear Mudland.
…partners
Well, if the Opposition ain’t courting the voters, they’ve certainly been courting each other!! If you didn’t know better, you’d think this was Valentine’s season, rather than Christmas!! But then, after Christmas, we also have that tradition of kissing under the mistletoe at the coming New Year bashes, don’t we??
Your Eyewitness has noticed that the PNC are “working toward a coalition for 2025” with the WPA – again!!
Back in 2015, the WPA had insisted it was they who’d done all the heavy lifting to put together APNU, but were then left out in the cold when it came to making decisions!! They emphasized they weren’t relaunching APNU – from which the PNC had been effectively ejected after they hadn’t shown up for meetings, and the leader of GAP was elected Chairman!!
Well, the AFC – which had parted ways with the PNC and APNU after 2020 – had also “spoken” to GAP, and now to the “Equality and Justice Party”!! These are all fighting for “critical mass” – to explode support in 2025!!
…the Brits
As the Brits descend inexorably into a third-rate state, now that their empire is finally gone, they’re seeking relevance by burnishing the old school ties. So, we have Guyanese-descended Foreign Affairs Minister David Lammy visiting to drum up business!!
