…Aubrey bashing
The moment your Eyewitness heard PNC Chairman Shurwayne Holder announcing an “oversight” committee to oversee the list of the delegates to the delayed Aug Biennial Congress, his reaction was, “Uh-uh…here we go again!!” Not over the delay, because the Congress was supposed to’ve been held last December; after all, if the PNC could delay elections for five months in the face of international condemnation, surely it could exceed that when EVERYTHING is under the party execs’ control!!
Nah, your Eyewitness’s alarm was over the role of the “oversight” committee at the Congress. This ain’t just about overseeing who’s gonna get to eat all the free fried rice and chowmein!! It’s all about the fact that there’s supposed to be an election to decide who’s gonna lead the PNC as we sail into more and more oil money coming into the cookie jar!! Billions and billions, baby!! And the oversight committee’s gonna be the gatekeeper, deciding who comes to congress! And right here decides who’s gonna lead the PNC!!
Now, when it comes to rigging, the PNC has any number of advanced degrees – having practised the practice since 1968 – and using these party elections as practice grounds!! In the beginning, Burnham was sure about his leadership position, but as he started to face opposition from bauxite workers etc…he started the practice of stacking the oversight committee to weed out dissenters. Trouble is that, in the present, every PNC member knows about the practice…having been coached by Norton and party execs in the preceding months as to where to place their “X”.
In 2010, when Granger was elected leader, after being selected by Robert Corbin, hadn’t Aubrey Norton – an old PNC hand – protested bitterly that even the delegates he’d brought from Linden had been tampered with by that oversight committee?!! In the end, he walked out with his defeated troops under the gaze of that infamous gunman!! PNC ain’t easy – even with their own!! What’s more, PNC Chairman Holder – in charge of selecting the oversight committee – was handpicked out of obscurity for his position on Norton’s slate, when the latter had been elected as Leader in Dec 2021!! Talk about divided loyalties!!
But there’s more than an “outcome determinative oversight committee”. Before penning this piece, your Eyewitness saw a letter from a PNC overseas member who bemoaned that danger (he’s PNC, after all!!) and went on to really skewer Aubrey.1:No financial accountability during the last two years. 2: No auditor or audit, violating PNC Constitution Rule 16 (4). 3: Only two party general council meetings, even though the constitution mandated one every three months. And 5: The CEC meetings are sporadically held, even though one monthly mandated.
Whew!! Is Aubrey’s goose cooked?
…oil in our lamp!!
For centuries, we’ve sung “a little more oil in our lamp” and even given “hosannahs”!! While everyone thought it was a metaphor by those ten virgins for getting more spiritual sustenance, it appears the Big Guy in the Sky took us literally – and gave us billions and billions of barrels of oil off our Atlantic Coast!! How many billions, we don’t even know, but your Eyewitness has been singing his hosannas quite fervently since 2019!! He figures even a trickle of that moolah going into the NRF gotta end up in his pockets – some time or other!!
After all, we’ll be getting to 1.3 MILLION BARRELS PER DAY by 2027!! And even though he’s complained bitterly about the shameless 14.5% PNC’s Trotman (yes, PNC!!) brought back – even that’s gonna add up!! There are some who’ve been agitating for renegotiating with Exxon for a higher share – but for most Guyanese, “out of sight” is out of mind!!
Sing hosannahs, sing hosannahs!!
…war
Iran vowed revenge for the April 1 airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus that killed a top Iranian general and six other Iranian military officers. Shamelessly, Russia, Germany and Britain urged Middle Eastern countries to show “restraint”!!
Like Israel??
