Now that the most extended interaction between the PPP Govt and the Opposition is over, the forest is taking shape out of the trees! From where your Eyewitness sits (on a high perch, like those tennis umpires!!), it’s clear to him that much of the Opposition hysteria – and it IS hysteria! – is because they’re deathly scared of the PPP using the oil revenues to win over enough members of their constituency to make them irrelevant!! And after three years in the saddle, the PPP’s clearly bent on achieving that goal – which it now states openly!! And it can do so with a straight face by claiming that’s what democracy’s all about!! You were elected on a manifesto that attracted a majority of the voters, but by delivering the goods, (literally!) to traditional PNC supporters, you expect to win new converts, come 2025!!
The PNC had their opportunity when they were voted in back in 2015, and if they were rational, they’d have done exactly what the PPP’s now doing. You may say they didn’t have oil revenues to splurge and hand out goodies like Santa “PPP” Claus. True, but shouldn’t they at least have tried to keep the voters who’d put them in office? In our ethnically divided country, that meant holding on to the Indian Guyanese brought in by Nagamootoo and Ramjattan. But NO!! Granger just had to pi55 them off (and worse) by firing 7000 of their sugar worker cohorts!! Did he have a political death wish for the PNC??
Anyhow the PNC and its troglodytes can jump high or they can jump low, but they ain’t gonna change the PPP’s push to secure a majority to return them in the driver’s seat next year. Can the PNC do anything ‘bout it? Right now, seems they figure they gotta undermine the PPP’s programme of delivering the good life. And they’ve decided to do this by invoking the race card. So, it doesn’t matter what the PPP does, African Guyanese are told they’ve been subjected to “racism” and “vindictiveness” and discrimination at every step of the way!! Even creating an “apartheid state” in Guyana!! The PNC figures if they throw enough mud in the PPP’s direction, some of it has gotta stick!!
And some will!! After years of being conditioned to hear those accusations from both sides of the divide! – most folks are pre-disposed to believing them: “Cognitive bias”, and all that!! Your Eyewitness still can’t get over Opposition’s accusation that Pressie photoshopped those pics from last year with Shamar Joseph!! To acknowledge Pressie’s love for cricket would make him more human!!
What’ll be gained by further polarising Guyana when votes from the “other side” are needed??
…of banks
One of the other provocative claims the PNC Opposition have been making for years is that, under PPP governments, banks discriminate against THEIR supporters to refuse them loans. Implying the PPP’s responsible!! And that’s why they’re stagnating economically. But is this really true? Let’s look at some facts. After Burnham seized power in 1968, he NATIONALIZED all banks; and, for the next two decades, gave out so many loans to his supporters that the Guyana National Cooperative Bank went bankrupt?? Where did all that money go?
And when the PPP took over, and private Banks re-entered the picture, wasn’t the Trini Republic Bank then the biggest bank?? Were they controlled by the PPP? And then Banks DIH opened up Citizens Bank…was that PPP-controlled? We won’t even talk about Globe Trust!! And why didn’t the PNC between 2015 and 2020 accept applications to have an African-owned bank open up??
But your Eyewitness is pleased that the PPP arranged for one that’s up and running. Let’s hear what the “problem” is now!!
…of losing benefits
Ok…your Eyewitness accepts the Government hasn’t gone along on “collective bargaining” with the GTU. They claim the GTU’s PNC leadership just want to score (political) points!! So, today we’ll see whether teachers will honour form (collective bargaining) over substance (higher wages and benefits”!!)
