…in anger at the PNC
Your Eyewitness is satiated with all the Christmas fare, extra helpings of Black Cake and enough mugs of Ginger Beer to choke a horse! So today, as he taps out this piece, he’s feeling like the proverbial snake that swallowed an alligator and had to rest for months as he (slowly) digested his mammoth meal! But, as he lies around, your Eyewitness can’t stop casting his mind back to the events over the last couple of years. And if he’s honest (which he is, as the day is long!) he must admit he’s filled with indignation and anger.
Anger at the PNC – let’s cut to the chase with this nonsense about a “coalition”, shall we? – for fulfilling the British slur on us for a hundred years that we’re “not ready for democracy”. And thereby also fulfilling Naipaul’s cynical conclusion that we’re just a bunch of “Mimic Men”, who ape the forms of British institutional behaviour but are oblivious to their substance. Can the PNC point to a SINGLE parliamentary democracy that didn’t demit office after the government lost a No Confidence Motion? Even Moldova – formed only in 1992 after the USSR fell apart – accepted their NCM in 2019. The shame! The shame!
Anger at the PNC for making us look like morons to the rest of the Caribbean (at least) with their ridiculous claim – all the way to the CCJ – that 33 wasn’t greater than 32! Even those who were slavering to get a piece of our oil action couldn’t help but snicker at their bare-faced chutzpah! One wag said he was reminded of their riposte when we pointed out that, unlike us, they had earthquakes and hurricanes. They’d simply smugly retort, “Y’all have Burnham!” How do you respond to that, or to the idiocy of their mathematical canard? The shame! The shame!
Anger that this man Granger, who could’ve changed the entire trajectory of our dystopian politics by honestly embracing coalition politics, could openly be dubbed by his Caricom peers as a “Sanctimonious Gangster”. Anger that he would hold this country hostage for five months as he jumped from (shaky) limb to (rotten) limb to hang on to power by attempting to rig elections. And not even by taking the ballots to count behind the walls of Camp Ayanganna as his mentor Burnham did, but in front of the entire diplomatic corps! The shame! The shame!
And finally, hot-red anger at Granger and his token Harmon’s incitement to riot in West Berbice following the unfortunate – and still unsolved – murders of the Henry cousins. Will all those who were violated, beaten, robbed and assaulted have to wait for justice in the long-promised COI?
This anger must be quenched!
…to the future
It’s truly said that behind every dark cloud there’s a silver lining. And in Guyana, behind the dark cloud of the PNC and their cynical politics, there has appeared the silver lining of our young President, Irfaan Ali, and his charismatic First Lady, Arya Ali. Right off the bat, they’ve brought an unmatched vibrancy and energy to the Presidency and the Executive. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, they appear to be here, there, and everywhere – bringing cheer and relief to all and sundry!
There isn’t a sector of our national agenda that has remained untouched personally by the First Couple. Whether it’s reopening the sugar estates, or giving out house lots, or injecting a boost to the economy through $25,000 cheques to every Guyanese family, no one’s been left behind! Other Presidents might’ve distributed Christmas goodies before him, but has anyone been so PERSONALLY invested like our First Family?
With at least five more years of this kind of activist intervention, Guyana will be turned around!
…after COVID-19
None of us knows what the future holds. But, this year, there’s one thing we can be pretty sure about: that things will never be the same after COVID-19.
For one, the home will remain the office for many!
