…the AFC
One day after being challenged by Clement Rohee to deconstruct the APNU, after he’d done a number on the PPP, Henry Jeffrey placed the AFC under his microscope. Now Jeffrey’s in a unique position for these exercises having worked for years with the comrades in the PPP and the PNC, and as such, would’ve also known the principals in the AFC, whose proudest boast is they came out of the belly of the afore named beasts!
Your Eyewitness doesn’t think Jeffrey’s avoiding dissecting the PNC-camouflaged-as-APNU. He’s taken several desultory stabs in that direction already. And the AFC’s such easy pickings, isn’t it? The premise of Trotman and Ramjattan was simple: in their own persons – and that of the WPA’s Sheila Holder – they represented the dominant political tendencies in Guyana. They could therefore constitute a “Third Force” to mediate between the PPP and PNC. So far so good.
But they made a second claim – they’d alternate the leadership between Trotman and Ramjattan. But they were ambiguous as to whether this rotation was based on their racial or party origin. A third claim was – having known the said beasts – they’d be armed with inside info to know exactly what was REALLY going on outside of the behemoths’ public platitudes. As such, they could act be the body to advise the Guyanese public whether the PNC-PPP’s sartorial preference were au natural!
But even before they got hitched to the PNC/APNU, it had become clear from the AFC’s actions in the post-2011 Opposition controlled Parliament, they weren’t keen to swing their support from one to the other in Parliament. They hewed to the PNC line! The marriage of 2015 was a foregone conclusion, notwithstanding Ramjattan’s protestations of “dead meat”. This Eyewitness never fell into the trap of tortuous exegeses to explain the AFC: both Trotman and Ramjattan left their parties because they were stymied in grabbing power.
In the AFC two things were then certain – Trotman and Ramjattan would be locked in their own power struggle. And they’d always be on the lookout to cut deals to further their interests. We know Trotman didn’t want to step aside for Ramjattan and vice versa in the “rotation” that became “gyrations”. While Jeffrey delicately didn’t mention it, Trotman did cut a deal with the PNC when he and PNC leader David Granger sealed their “Nassau Accord”.
This, of course, made the publicly “negotiated “Cummingsburg Accord” moot – and no one should be surprised it wasn’t even honoured in the breach!
As such, the AFC’s seeming last ditch attempt to remain relevant by denouncing the pParking meter scam, is just a pappy show by dead meat!
…cross dressing
Your Eyewitness was always bemused by the rationale offered by the powers-that-be to ban men dressed as women from entering the courts. Women, on the other hand, could routinely dress as men and sashay right in front of any “fit and proper” judge! Of all the places in God’s green earth, they insisted on enforcing a blatantly discriminatory action is a COURT OF LAW? Ahhhh…the irony of it all!
Now the real reason, of course, was about power. The establishment didn’t want to undermine male privilege signified by their garb. It was OK for women to dress as men – they were implicitly genuflecting to male power through imitation. But men dressed as women?? The horror! The horror!! That was implying women had something that could improve MAN’s worth!
Couldn’t allow that, could one chaps? Even though Justice is blind, she does draw the line at clothes! Well, it seems that shibboleth has now fallen when our courts allowed some cross-dressers to enter their hallowed chambers.
And the skies didn’t even shake, much less fall!
