After shooting itself in the foot – with the Sanctimonious Gangster aiming the gun – the PNC finally had its-leader-since-December appointed as “Opposition Leader”!! Surely, dear reader, we don’t have to go over the sordid details, do we?? That’s now a Guyanese cautionary tale for the ages on the tragedy of a country led by men filled with hubris. As was promised by the Speaker, as soon as Norton (along with Volda) was sworn in as an MP, the Opposition MPs were allowed to huddle and elect their Leader.
Within 15 minutes, the deed was done!! So, it’s clear that neither Ramjattan with his 9 AFC MPs nor the 20 APNU MPs selected by Granger raised any fuss, even though Norton had already signalled there were going to be some “readjustments”. This bodes well for Norton, since it’s never a good strategy to fight on two fronts – especially if one of those fronts is from within!!
Norton indicated very clearly that he’s taken your Eyewitness’s advice to focus on utilising his new bully pulpit as the means of removing the PPP from office, and the means of scrutinising their performance from all the platforms available in Parliament, to “expose” whatever skulduggery he can find.
While Norton didn’t get too granular, your Eyewitness expects he’ll take the advice to utilise the Sectoral Committees to summon whichever Government official the Opposition believes can reveal needed facts, and grill them in the presence of the media!! That’s getting two bangs for the buck!! Making Government officials sweat, and having it reported in the mainstream press!! You don’t think the house lot distribution is fair?? Well…grill officials from Housing!! Employment opportunities? Ditto!!
What Norton has to aim for – as advised by your Eyewitness – is weaning away enough crossovers to give him the one or two seats that stand between him remaining in the Opposition or capturing the Executive. His weak link, of course, is the AFC of Ramjattan. While they got 9 MPs as per Granger’s Cummingsburg Accord, there’s no way he can muster that kind of support in 2025. Frankly, it’s doubtful they can even pip any of those mushroom parties that popped up in 2020! It took two of them to obtain ONE “joiner” seat!! The clincher in 2015 was the Indian crossover vote, especially in Berbice. This disappeared like a snow cone in hell the moment Granger decided to shutter those sugar estates!
Norton will have to get someone who can generate some confidence in the Indian- Guyanese community. Can he do it? Well, not if he takes the advice of the “radicals” and put boots on the ground – in the streets!!
He did make this threat. Hope it was just to genuflect in that direction!!
…a functioning e-democracy??
For those who might be scratching their heads and wondering whether your Eyewitness has switched to the PNC, all that can be said is they missed the point about how a parliamentary democracy functions. It runs on Lord Acton’s principle that power always corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, if at elections’ time we hand over power to a group that forms the Executive, what stops them from being corrupt and abusing their power?
The Opposition, that’s what!!
An American founding father had expressed the psychology behind that principle. “If men were angels,” he said, “we wouldn’t need governments”!! But we ain’t angels, right? Not after Adam ate that apple! So, we need power to be checked and balanced at all times. In parliamentary governance, the Opposition checks the Executive in Parliament, and the Opposition Leader checks the President in having to be consulted on certain critical matters.
The Judiciary, finally, checks and balances them both by interpreting the Constitution that they both must follow!! Kapeesh??
…anti-colonialism dead?
Your Eyewitness is quite disappointed that Norton went to Parliament in a suit, rather than a shirt-jack. He’s the FIRST small man to become a real man, and he didn’t follow Comrade Leader Burnham?
Et tu, Aubrey??
