…and their campaign
The PNC have indicated – sorta – on their Facebook page that their elections campaign will be launched on Jan 3rd. Now, why are they so coy about showing their hand?? Is it that they’re so contemptuous of their base, which they believe is only interested in “jump up” and “wine down” at Guinness Bars or their equivalent? Or are they fearful of “peaking” too early? You know, tossing their wad right now and having nothing left for next year?? Are their plans so prosaic that they’ll wilt and die in three months??
The PPP, on the other hand, haven’t only been campaigning all over the country, but even threw out a synopsis of their manifesto two weeks ago!! That shows confidence…and has served to demoralise the PNC’s base that still haven’t the foggiest notion as to how their party plans to take another stab at delivering the “good life”.
That 2015 promise joined Burnham’s “Feed, House and Clothe the Nation” in the dustbin of history. Maybe Granger learnt something from that debacle, and that’s why he wasn’t too specific this time around!!
But their sloth might also be due to the disarray in the coalition that Granger and Corbin worked so hard to cobble together to “put lipstick on a pig” – to quote their Executive, Aubrey Norton! After trying all sorts of gimmicks to add appendages to their name – PNC/R, PNCR, and the most honest PNCR1G – they decided on a complete name change to APNU. They hoped that by bringing four alphabet-soup paper parties – NDA, NFA, JFAP, WPA – under one umbrella, it would throw folks off the scent. Didn’t work in 2011!!
And that’s why AFC was brought aboard for 2015 – and it worked. It worked because some folks thought the AFC would do what it said it would – represent interests outside of the PNC’s traditional base, so that there’d be some sort of NATIONAL consensus. Never happened…and that’s why Ramjattan feared that the AFC would become “dead meat” if it coalesced with the PNC.
The holdup in the campaign is most likely due to the dilemma the PNC face in trying to convince the country – and the international community – that they have a “national coalition” with the AFC, when they, their supporters and the rest of the world KNOW that the AFC ain’t bringing squat to the party in March!! Most grating is Ramjattan’s insistence that he gotta be the PM Candidate! Granger has already castrated that position, so he has no fears of competition from that quarter.
His dilemmas is what happens to their pappy show when it’s exposed that Ramjattan has agreed to a “morganatic” union.
That is, he has no right of succession!! Ouch!!
…and China
As first oil looms, Guyanese must come to grips with the reality that the money that will be coming their way via the bonus, royalty and profit-sharing that’re stipulated in our PSAs could end up in the pockets of the PNC big wigs. That’s why your Eyewitness was pleased to learn that the funds allocated to the NRF – our Sovereign Wealth Fund – would be placed in an account with the NY Fed.
This PNC Government, from its very beginning, cosied up to China – and it’s not just trips! Early in 2018, it officially confirmed its leanings when it signed onto China’s Trojan Horse “Belt and Road Initiative”.
Most pertinently, it stated, “The parties will expand the use of their respective local currency in investment and trade based on the investment and trade demands, strengthen the exchanges and cooperation between their Currency and Financial Regulators, and promote the mutual establishment of the Financial Institutions between the two countries.”
It ain’t gonna be so easy now!!
…and Local Content
Chris Ram was forced to call out the business community – and even the accounting profession – for not taking a more principled and coherent stand against the PNC’s abdication of its responsibilities to Guyana on a Local Content Policy.
We’re crewed coming and going – on the oil contracts and LCP.
