…with the coalition Government?
Quick now: can you, dear reader, reel off the names of the SIX parties in the governing coalition?? PNC…AFC…WPA…GAP…Did you get that far?? But you still have two to go!! Well, there’s the JFAP, Sharma’s party; then there’s that outfit that Keith Scott heads, the National Front Alliance (NFA). It got 417 votes in 2001, and became part of PNCR in 2006.
You don’t know who Scott is? Well, he’s a MINISTER within the Ministry of Social Protection, which is within the Ministry of the Presidency!! Talk about Babushka dolls within Babushka dolls!! No wonder Lincoln Lewis is teed off at how they rank labour!!
Anyhow, in his peroration at the Cultural Centre on “Social Cohesion Day”, PM Nagamootoo offered a whole new socio-political perspective on Guyana. It bears quoting at length, since he assured the audience – which included the Secretary General of the Commonwealth – that Guyana’s political problems were a thing of the past!! After all, Nagamootoo is a man with “over 50 years in politics, who sat at the feet of Cheddi Jagan – and called him “Pa”. And if he’s to be believed, was Cheddi’s designated successor!!
Declaimed Nagamootoo: “In this land of six races, for the first time ever, we voted into office a Government comprising six parties. So Guyana is not only multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious; she is also multi-party, with a rainbow coalition that has the image with various ethnic and cultural strands of our society.”
So what Nagamootoo’s claiming is the six parties in the coalition represent the SIX peoples of Guyana! At long last, we have reached the nirvana that Jagan and Burnham had both sought, but never found after 1953!!
Now, your Eyewitness can guess the races PNC, WPA, GAP, JFAP and AFC represent; but who exactly is the NFA’s constituency?? Which colours in the “rainbow coalition” does Scott shimmer for? The Portuguese? The Chinese? Or both?? But if Nagamootoo’s representational theory is correct, Keith Scott should be given a much higher profile, at least higher than Nagamootoo’s, since he represents only ONE of the six races, and a tiny fraction at that!!
Nagamootoo then further boasted that political dominance by one single party was ended in 2015 when the APNU and AFC took office!! Now, dear reader, let’s unbundle this remarkable assertion. In the present coalition Government, if Nagamootoo is not to be snickered at, the PNC is only ONE AMONG EQUALS!! The AFC doesn’t allow the PNC to get away with throwing its (considerable) weight around!!
The WPA’s complaint that this just ain’t so doesn’t count. Evidently that’s just an intra-family squabble in Nagamootoo’s eyes!! “Man and wife” story!!
Happy days are here again!!
…and the LGE
But even with Nagamootoo’s protestations to the contrary, things don’t look as rosy as he makes out. Has he forgotten his threat when he didn’t get to Chair Cabinet meetings as per the Cummingsburg Accord? His name might’ve been Moses and he might’ve received the Covenant of the Accord behind a Burning Bush from David Granger at the Georgetown Club – but he’d forgotten to insist that it be carved in stone!!
Even if, being the mensch he is, he’s forgiven and forgotten his emasculation – left with just a column in the Chronic and allowed to cut ribbons – it’s clear his party’s a tad more practical. After all, we‘ve moved “from status to contract”, and the terms of a contract are sacrosanct and all that!! So, over at the OP (call it what you may!) AFC’s Patterson is haggling with PNC’s Harmon over the spoils at the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE).
According to a Dicky bird, the AFC’s demanding 60% of the LGE’s spoils – as opposed to the 40% at the General Elections.
That’ll test Nagamootoo’s theory of coalitional equality!!
…and roundabouts
Fifty years after Independence, Guyana’s getting its first roundabout!! And like the trepidation of pedestrians to step on the first escalators five years ago, motorists are getting “belly wuk”!!
Such progress!!
