Dear Editor,
The Alliance for Change has once again embarked on a journey of lies and deceit since election is once again in the air. We must recall that during the Local Government Elections campaign they spun their web of deceit and lies as they did in 2015, but this time the masses are ready since many have awoken from their self-inflicted slumber.
The AFC was given a sound thrashing at the LGE polls after Granger wilfully threw them to face the gauntlet. Guyanese have now become wary of these political mercenaries!
The lure for power and pecuniary gains will always rule paramount for third parties, which was evidenced in 1964 and again in 2015 by both the UF and the AFC. The pretenders and the pretensions of these third parties are well documented.
In fact, those in the AFC have squandered the opportunity to be patriots who can bring about the necessary changes to propel this country towards socio-economic growth. Where have the progressives gone? Without an iota of doubt, they have been utterly consumed by the PNC because of their greed and lust for power. Another third party just dissipated!
However, it is now evidenced also that the AFC leaders’ main thrust and objective were to “get rid of the PPP”. The subversive tactics they used in Parliament bear testimony. It was never about putting Guyana first but rather to get rid of their arch enemy and loot the Treasury.
At no point in time was the AFC honest about tackling the socio-economic problems facing this country. They made the country ungovernable which led to a vote of no-confidence tabled by Nagamootoo, the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of an early election in 2015.
It must also be recalled that at its formation, the founding leaders had vowed never to coalesce with either the PPP or the PNC since they claimed that both had destroyed this country. They had vowed to remain independent but the grand entry of the genuine pretender, Moses Nagamootoo, just before the 2011 elections, changed all of that with his guile and innate ability to manipulate and achieve his selfish objectives.
Now after nearly a year of the successful No-Confidence Motion against the coalition and the CCJ’s emphatic pronouncements, we have seen that the political mercenaries are hovering to plunder what opportunities are available due to the Herculean efforts of Jagdeo and the PPP. Like the hyenas who cannot hunt their own preys, they are willing to dine on the leftovers, even if it means being subservient like the AFC!
There are political parties all over and one has the make great efforts to remember their names or hilarious acronyms. One even echoed the mental state of Guyanese with regards to political parties – FED-UP. A new political party took a premature birth even though it may have been conceived a long time ago.
Some said that it was birthed three and a half years ago but due to its feebleness, it was nurtured in an incubator awaiting an opportunity to be piggybacked into the Guyanese political arena. It could not have ventured on its own, it had to ride on the success of the No-Confidence Motion. This party, A New United Guyana, founded by Ralph, suddenly emerged in the arena spewing similar rhetoric like the now-defunct AFC.
But where were these ‘saviours’ over three and a half years ago when the APNU/AFC coalition was wreaking havoc in our country? Mr Ramkarran hid behind his “conversation tree” with articles which failed to directly confront the plethora of ills and wrongdoings meted out to the Guyanese people. What did these ‘saviors’ say or do about the massive corruption, the gross mismanagement of the economy, the callous closures of the sugar estates and the vindictive dismissal of over 7000 sugar workers and thousands of others, the endless stream of wastage and extravagance, the cronyism, the debilitating burden of increased taxation and worsening standard of living, the catapulting of numerous communities into poverty, the completely visionless annual budgets, the destruction of all the productive sectors, the increasingly huge deficits of the public enterprises, the voracious appetite for borrowing , and the ignoring of the old, the young and the vulnerable groups?
Yet now these fledgeling parties like ANUG, FED-UP and the Liberty and Justice Party are seeing these atrocities for the first time! The Rip Van Winkles of politics! Where were these “true progressives and patriots”, who will now stand for what is right, even in the face of death? Where was the FED-UP leader? Where was the LJP leadership? These pretenders and hypocrites have shamelessly come out not to save Guyana but to fulfil their own political ambitions.
The pertinent question is: Where will we find a third party which possesses “that higher purpose which resonates with the Guyanese people?” That has now become a myth. Third parties have proven themselves to be the means by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of Government.
Third parties have only made lives for Guyanese increasingly worse as is evidenced by the “dead meat” AFC and the long-dead United Force. Third parties have become synonymous with dictatorship in this country. These third parties are willing to sacrifice their principles in order to make a short cut into Government and plunder the nation.
The only unwavering and unflinching constant in the political arena is the People’s Progressive Party and it is this party that has fought ceaselessly to bring not only democracy but socio-economic development to this nation from bankruptcy and it is this party which has once again risen up to tirelessly and successfully fight another PNC dictatorship under Granger in its bid to restore progress. Guyanese cannot be fooled again! No ‘third farce’ again!
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
