Up north, the “silly season” of frivolous stories to take up the news slack is during the summer months, while we — living in perpetual summer — experience it during the season of elections!! If anyone had any doubts that our “silly season” is here already, then the bold headline in one of the tabloids that are not known for their warmth to the PPP government — that a new party’s about to be launched – should’ve dispelled those doubts like a flutie on a hot GT pavement!!
Now, dear reader, you may ask why your Eyewitness thinks that announcement of this incipient party is frivolous; after all, in our democracy – even though some see “shades of autocracy”!! – isn’t it a sign of its health that folks believe they can take on the incumbent Government and oust it?? Look at the last elections – THIRTEEN parties contested, even though SIX of them were subsumed in the APNU/AFC coalition!! This means there were actually EIGHTEEN parties on the hustings!!
Truth be told – as your Eyewitness has been saying over the years, after witnessing the electoral carnivals – parties spring up like jumbie umbrellas!! Like all mushrooms, these thrive in darkness and on dung!!
Your Eyewitness believes it’s part of our general self-contempt that so many people believe they can actually come out of total obscurity, and — possessing no proof that they can even run a black-pudding stand — think they can run the country!! Part of the pull of running is these deluded souls can prance about as “Presidential” and “Prime Ministerial” Candidates for the duration!! Some who aren’t totally cuckoo have unearthed an obscure device that allows several mushroom parties to run on a “joinder slate” – wherein their meagre votes can be pooled. One three-party arrangement in 2020 secured one seat, but the refusal of the one with the smallest tally – 240 votes – to vacate after their time-share was up might scuttle this device for 2025. It would appear that not only among thieves is honour missing!!
Now, the first chuckle – if not an outright guffaw!! – elicited by the budding party was its name GUARD!! We’re expected by the worthies behind the venture – who’ve been described as “professionals and others” – to believe that they picked the name “Guyana United for Accountability and Resources Development” to arrive at the acronym “GUARD” fortuitously; and not to fool Guyanese into thinking it’s a revival of the hugely successful GUARD of the pre-1992 era: Guyana Association for Reform and Democracy – that had Sam Hinds and Yesu Persaud at its helm!!
From where your Eyewitness sits, this subterfuge does not augur well for their commitment to “Accountability” – implicit in their name!! But it’s the silly season, innit??
…or cleansing the PNC
Your Eyewitness has lifted his arms to the heavens and pleaded for the Opposition to do what Opposition parties are supposed to do in democracies – present a credible alternative to the incumbent Government, and, in so doing, keep the latter on the straight and narrow!! In Guyana, no matter how you slice it, dice it, or puree it, we still vote largely based on our “race”. The Opposition PNC gets its votes mostly from African Guyanese, and the governing PPP from the Indian Guyanese. And they both try their darndest to get a slice of the Amerindian Guyanese votes and slivers from each other’s constituencies!!
Well, your Eyewitness was quite disappointed when he heard that PNC Leader Aubrey Norton had replaced MP Jermaine Figueira as party leader in Reg 10 – a PNC African Guyanese-dominated region – with an Interim Committee. Seems the leader thinks Figueira’s doing too much “social” work, and not enough “political” work!!
Like what?? Not holding off the PPP inroads made through social work?? Go figure!!
