Politicking…

…for keeps

There’s been a steady stream of prominent members of Opposition parties – all the way to sitting MP’s – who’ve decided to throw their lot in with the PPP in time for the Sept 1 elections. And the phenomenon seems to be developing such a head of steam your Eyewitness wouldn’t be surprised if some in the LEADERSHIP core decide to follow suit!! Wouldn’t it be a bitch if Norton moves from shaking Pressie’s hand to announcing he’s now supporting the latter’s candidacy??!! But naaah!! Ain’t gonna happen – but you get the idea, don’t you??
So what’s really going on?? Now politics in Guyana – like politics everywhere – folks support parties for any number of reasons – personal and objective ones. We all know about the ethnic factor – which works at both levels. Is that what’s playing out here? Well one rabid rabble rouser from the WPA – who’s got race in his brain – thinks so where the persons departing the Opposition parties to the PPP are Indians!! For example, with Geeta Chandan and Daniel Seeram – who’d been brought in by Granger to broaden the PNC’s image – he fumed that they were “ingrates” since they’d been given positions that far exceeded Indian support they’d brought into the party!!
But as usual, he misses the point because of his compulsion to fulminate!! If in fact Granger brought in these Indian persons and gave them big positions in the PNC it was because he calculated they helped present a “kinder, gentler and more accommodative” PNC. The party was already dead meat that stank from head to tail and – just like Hoyte back in the day – he had to sanitize it!! These folks were willing to be called “PNC” when most wouldn’t touch them with a mile-long pole!! When Norton initially made Geeta Chandan PNC general Secretary and Seeram Reg 4 Chairman, they weren’t only signaling that the PNC was kosher – but so was he!! That’s of inestimable political value – so there’s nothing “ungrateful” about their decision to leave the PNC as if they got more than they gave!!
So what does the reprobate say about the Afro and Mixed Guyanese who’ve moved over to the PPP – like for instance James Bond and of Region 4, Dep Chair, Samuel Sandy?? They are “opportunists” who “hang their mouths where soup a leak”!! It’s inconceivable to him that these folks – and those above – could POSSIBLY see the PPP as better equipped to develop Guyana – which includes them – than the PNC!!
And that such persons leaving the PNC damages its credibility and image – not to mention signaling weakness in being unable to generate loyalty. Rather han cussing the departed, the Opposition should up their game!!
Or remain dead meat!!

…and talking fat
Your Eyewitness guesses that the AFC announcing they’re gonna be renegotiating the Exxon PSA is a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures!! After all, is there anything more desperate that becoming extinct!! Which is the condition they’re teetering on after their condition deteriorated from “Dead Meat” – which they’d become after they hitched up with the PNC!! The very fact that your Eyewitness has even mentioned them proves the point!!
So let’s suspend every iota of discretion we have and suppose that the AFC on its lonesome – after they were spurned by he PNC – wins the election – they’ll still have to get past that small matter of the most draconian freezing stability clause in the contract – which prohibits ANY renegotiation or modification!! But HOLD IT!! It was the AFC’s co-founder Trotman who agreed to that clause, innit? Maybe – as most believe – he received “inducements” to accept that??
And is now willing to fall on his sword and fess up – thus voiding the contract??

…on accomplishments
The news that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is once again flying into our dear Mudland is another nail in the coffin of the Opposition. With British Airways already having returned we’re now firmly reconnected to our founders!