This week, several strange developments took place in the Alliance For Change (AFC) camp which should provide food for thought for the populace and core areas of analysis for those persons with political minds.
Almost all of those developments were linked to the AFC’s partnership with the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) which has the People’s National Congress (PNC) as its main constituent and centrepiece.
Also, they relate to the AFC’s positions on issues related to the Executive branch of Government and its decision-making processes.
In short, when a basic and amateur analysis is done of the sudden and unexpected public statements released by the AFC, one may get the impression that the party is independent, autonomus from the others within the coalition and principled.
One may even praise the party for breaking its apparent silence on core issues and standing up to its big brother, the APNU.
But if one were to open one’s eyes to the realities that led to the AFC joining the coalition in the first place, the personalities that negotiated the Cummingsburg Accord from the party and the histories of the key politicians within its leadership, one can never arrive at such a clumsy and premature conclusion.
In fact, there are those of us who will never be fooled by the theatrics, trickery, drama and pretence of the AFC which is being controlled by Moses Nagamootoo, now Prime Minista, and Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan.
We know that there is more to the AFC’s outburst than meets the eye. We also know that Ministers Nagamootoo and Ramjattan do not do things without a clear motive which most times includes personal aggrandisement, betrayal and ambition, as well as the pursuit of power and status.
Therefore, their outbursts can be viewed from two perspectives.
Firstly, the AFC is part and parcel of all of the decision-making at the level of Government. It sits at all Cabinet meetings and participates in all of the discussions. The party is empowered to raise all of its grouses with President David Granger and Minister of State Joseph Harmon where there may be a difference in policy outlook and implementation, as well as Governance techniques.
In short, the party could have resolved all of its concerns quietly behind closed doors without a big hullabaloo.
Secondly, the AFC was part of all of the decisions they are now protesting and apparently against. They supported the closure of the Wales and LBI Estates. They supported the decision by Government not to subsidise the rice industry which is in crisis or search for lucrative markets for paddy. They also supported the new wave of increased taxation and economic hardship which is currently being foisted on the populace. They supported the series of advisory and ministerial appointments made within the coalition. And finally, the AFC supported the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) crass actions against thousands of poor and hardworking sugar workers.
If they did not and the APNU was allowed to make all these decisions and the others that the AFC are opposed to, then the Cummingsburg Accord is a sham, there is no national unity in Government and the coalition is failing as well as falling apart.
The truth is, the AFC is now ready to strike back at the APNU because it recognises that its party structure is falling apart and it has lost a lot of electoral support and attractiveness.
Ministers Ramjattan and Nagamootoo are out to embarrass President Granger and Minister Harmon. It is widely believed that they are the ones feeding the Kaieteur News and other news outlets with information about BaiShanLin, the missteps of APNU Ministers, inside deals that they will not benefit from and other sensational data.
Both figures want elevation within the Government. One has always wanted to be President while the other wants to function as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat.
As expected, their grasp for power and influence knows no end. It started in the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and spilled over to the AFC before mushrooming to the coalition.
Just as how Mr Raphael Trotman and Mr Granger met and decided on a plan of action in Nassau… the same way these two AFC demigods have cooked up their plan.
