…at the gamble on Granger
Your Eyewitness was trying to put himself in the shoes of your typical PNC supporter to figure out what he thought of the events of the past five years. Quickly realising he just couldn’t perform that mental gymnastics, he did the next best thing: he asked his friend Georgie, an old PNC warhorse. First and foremost, Georgie intoned, he’s questioning whether it was worth the gamble the powers-that-be in his party took in rigging its internal elections to make sure that Granger was anointed as PNC leader.
Georgie understood the need for the PNC to have a makeover of its thug image – honed through the years by fellas from the inside like Hamilton Green, Robert Corbin and their wannabes in every decade; and on the outside by terrorists, from Dougla Alfred in the sixties to Fineman in the second millennium.
Initially, he’d supported Carl Greenidge as leader. After all, Carl was as unthuggish as you could get, since he couldn’t punch his way out of a paper bag! And he’d been with the Party for donkey’s years, toiling away in Finance after Burnham had frittered away all the finance of the country. Not easy at all!
But Georgie went along with the rigged selection of Granger, since he was told Granger would toe the (party) line, being so inexperienced in politics. But he shoulda known better! While Granger had been out of the army for more than twenty years, it became clear that the army wasn’t out of him! The man started appointing his squaddies right, left and center in the party structure, and pretty soon, when he walked into meetings of the PNC Executive, folks had to jump to attention!!
Georgie thought the gambit to coalesce with the AFC was sound – hadn’t Comrade Forbes done the same thing with the UF to get out the PPP back in ‘64? It was especially a good move since neither Ramjattan nor Nagamootoo was any Peter D’Aguiar. Unlike that fella, who was independently wealthy and wouldn’t take any lip from Burnham, the two AFC leaders were basically just looking to feed at the trough of the Treasury! This was no gamble, since the AFC quickly lay down to become Granger’s doormat.
They proved their willingness to have Granger walk all over them when Granger threw the Report of the COI into the Sugar Industry into the wastebasket and then proceeded to shut down four sugar estates, and they insisted they approved!! But that was also when Georgie knew that Granger was going to rig the elections when his term ended.
Why else would he chase off the AFC’s votes that took him over the wire?
…at Granger’s gamble
Georgie didn’t have a problem with rigging the elections. After all, hadn’t Burnham rigged every election he participated in after the British left? Rigging was in the authentic tradition of the PNC! With all those precedents in front of him, Georgie was sure that Granger would pick one of the tried and true methods the Comrade Leader had devised. Like padding the Voters List with underage PNC youths through birth certificates handed out by Winston Felix. Why else would he have hived off “Immigration and Records” from Ramjattan and given it to that “Bannuh”?
Then there was the tried-and- true method of rushing the polling places in PNC strongholds by young “foot soldiers” – as was pointed out by Volda. They were just too many to count. So, when matters unfolded at Ashmins after March 3rd, Georgie was kerfuffled!
How in the world did Granger think he could get away with the stunt Mingo pulled? Especially with that soiled bedsheet afterwards.
Georgie was emphatic. Granger had to go!!
…to the future
Your Eyewitness finally asked the dazed Georgie as to how that would be accomplished. And his friend said simply, “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword!”
A rigged election at the next PNC Congress?
