Dear Editor,
The Alliance For Change (AFC) is once again resorting to the tactics it used in 2005 and in subsequent years – attack the People’s National Congress (PNC) and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in an attempt to garner support and voters’ sympathy.
The AFC in just three years has lost its identity. It has been consumed and has become a mere pawn to the PNC-dominated Government – agreeing or disagreeing as the need arises. When one reads the statements in the Action Plan written by Messrs Khemraj Ramjattan and Raphael Trotman, it is pellucid that those lofty ideals were just window dressing to appeal to the people.
I wish to remind the Guyanese public of what Ramjattan and Trotman had stated in that manifesto called the Action Plan. Ramjattan had stated that the AFC will free us from “the divisive racial politics of the past, from the corruption that engulfs us, from the oppressive taxes we are forced to pay, from the deadly crime that haunts and traumatises us, from the economic decline, and from the hopelessness that we breathe daily…. Over four decades of PNC and PPP Governments have left us all bruised, weary and hopeless.”
His counterpart, Mr Trotman had echoed similar proclamations. He had stated that “the rich get richer while most Guyanese continue to remain poor…Failure to change now will lead to five more years of high taxation, higher unemployment, soaring crimes and widespread hopelessness”. (AFC’s Action Plan 2011).
Let us now analyse what has happened since 2015. Unfortunately, the racial vendetta unleashed on the PPP members and supporters across Guyana, especially in the sugar industry, has proven the hypocrisy of this statement. The AFC has remained silent while this ‘divisive racial politics’ is being unleashed. Persons perceived as supporters and members of the PPP have been unconscionably kicked out of their jobs. The ethnic cleaning and the witch-hunting are quite horrific!
Moreover, the corruption is now pervasive and out of control, the D’Urban Park mega-corruption, the Drugs Bond deal, the prefeasibility contract for the New Demerara Harbour Bridge scandal, the flagrant disregard for the procurement process in the $605 million drugs purchase for the GPHC, the US$18 million signing bonus which is still to be placed in the Consolidated Fund and the mother of all corruption – the surreptitiously negotiated petroleum sharing oil contract with ExxonMobil. The Auditor General’s Annual Report for Y2016 found 82 breaches of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act (FMAA) and 71 breaches of the Procurement Act. This is still continuing, and the AFC has fully supported its coalition partner, the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)!
Both Trotman and Ramjattan spoke about ‘oppressive taxes’ against the people, but they should now recognise and admit that since 2015, there has been a drastic increase in taxes as well as the introduction of new taxes (over 200 taxes), “the rich is getting richer while most Guyanese remain poor” and there is now more than ever “high taxation, higher unemployment, soaring crimes and widespread hopelessness” (Trotman). Ramjattan should also admit that just after three years this nation has become more “bruised, weary and hopeless”. Over 30,000 Guyanese have been thrown on the breadline while the economy is precariously placed at 2.1 per cent growth and all economic indicators point in a downward descent.
Now this deceitful tactic of the AFC has once again become evident. For the past three years the AFC has fully supported the actions of this Government, which is PNC-dominated, and has remained silent on all the wrongs meted out to the Guyanese people, but now it has come full circle and decided to once again attack the PNC. This is a vain attempt to regain the support it once had. Its glory days are over! The AFC will do better if it withdraws from contesting in those constituencies where it committed blatant electoral fraud. That will at least give the AFC some credibility. Time to follow Jagdeo!
The President at Anna Regina had told the people that, “Local Government Elections is not about victim or victor, winning or losing; it is about giving the people the opportunity to run their own affairs”. This is far from the truth since neither the APNU nor the AFC had condemned the widespread electoral fraud perpetrated by their respective parties on the same people whom he wants to empower.
The AFC has not only committed political hara-kiri by coalescing with the PNC and then become partners in corruption and mismanagement, but it has caused this nation to deeply bury its trust in any third force for generations to come!!
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
