The surest sign that elections are in the air is folks floating trial balloons about new parties being launched. This is as fine a Guyanese tradition as Black Cake for Christmas or 7-curry for weddings!! Not that we can’t have Black Cake for birthdays or 7-Curry for visiting PMs!!
Remember the United Farmers and Workers Party (USWP) launched by Daniel Prabhudas Debidin for the 1953 elections?? He left the most indelible political slogan in the history of Guyana, which has been hauled out in every election since: APAN JAAT – vote fuh yuh own!!! In that
year, for the first time, every adult who was not a legal moron or in jail could have voted. In addition to the PPP, there was also the United Democratic Party (UDP) launched by John Carter, head of the League of Coloured People (LCP), who mobilized to keep out the riffraff that had just been given the franchise!! Raphael ain’t the first!!
Anyhow, a couple of months ago, the Stabber announced on their front page that there’d be the imminent launching of a new GUARD – this time, named “Guyana United for Accountability and Resources Development”!! This, of course, was a shameless plagiarism of the name of the Civic group that had made such a big splash before the 1992 elections!! The presence of the rum magnate Yesu Persaud – along with Bauxite Exec Sam Hinds and a host of bigwigs on the platform – ensured they’d be taken seriously. Sam Hinds, as we know, was chosen by Cheddi as his PM candidate, and this had probably motivated many of the wannabees, who’ve subsequently thrown their hats in the ring!!
The new GUARD – which claim they’d be “Promoting Good Governance, Guarding the Constitution and Securing Guyana’s natural resources” – however, hasn’t been heard from since!! It would appear that someone – or something – has popped their trial balloon. There have also been persistent claims that the owner of the Muckraker paper’s gonna jump into the ring. He’s been shadow-boxing from the sidelines quite animatedly over the last few years as a single-issue candidate – getting mo’ oil money. No one takes him seriously, however; and it’s felt that his shrunken newspaper sales might be forcing him to hedge his bets!!
But, just this morning, your Eyewitness read that the fella from the AFC – who’d voted with the PPP on their No Confidence Motion – is now about to launch his own party! As Tom Wolfe wrote back in the day, you can’t ever really go back home!! So, what will be he “fighting” for?? Believe it or not – after he, as a LAWYER, got a $50M contract for building roads – he’s livid that some erstwhile members of the PNC have gotten $15M ones!!
2025’s gonna be a doozy!!
…for local milk
Originally, farmers on the coast used to supply a pasteurizing milk plant in GT with milk, picked up daily along our public road. Then Burnham decided he’d have milk production centralised – following the Russians’ dekulakization? – at a 4000-acre farm at Moblissa on the Linden Highway. All it accomplished was destroying the coastal milk production – even as Moblissa collapsed!! Part of the problem was that the grass was in very sandy soils, and as the cattle grazed, they ingested sand with the grass!! Burnham had to ruminate on that!!!
Well, the liquor producer DDL has decided to return to Moblissa to supply Guyana with the more salubrious drink – milk!! But announced the specially imported US cows won’t be grazing out in the open range as of yore – but be fed in two massive 80,000 sq ft pens. Well, why not?? If Abu Dhabi can do this in their desert, why can’t we in our tropical savannahs??
Sadly, we won’t be able to hire our local cowboys!!
…for Indian investment?
So, with Modi back in India and their largest investor in US hot water for alleged violations of their SEC rules – bribing Indian Government officials and not reporting it!! – are we gonna get a piece of the action??
