Like our own soul king Johnny Braff sang in 1965 – after the new PNC-UF Government threw out the PPP Govt – your Eyewitness “don’t care what they say…(or) care what they do”, but baby, he knows the elections season’s been well and truly launched!! The PPP’s been in election mode the minute they were allowed back in office – thanks to the international community’s “no can do!!” to APNU/AFC’s blatant rigging attempt!! Those spreadsheets and (soiled) bedsheets – at least they could’ve been a little discreet!!
So, the PPP’s had a pretty big jump on the Opposition – wouldn’t you say, dear reader?? They didn’t make no bones about their elections programme – then five years away in 2025. They were gonna use the oil funds – just starting to flow – to develop the country so humongously it would knock the socks off all the doubting Thomases!! Bridges, highways, hotels, skyscrapers, 50,000 houses; 50,000 jobs — plus many of them high paying in the new oil sector — were only the tip of what they promised was gonna be a Titanic-sinking kinda iceberg!!
And to give them credit, they switched gears in avoiding the elephant that’s been in every electoral room since 1957: they announced they were gonna address the “race” factor!! They were gonna go into every African-Guyanese community and ensure that shared in the development drive, so they, too, would shout from the rooftops: “Happy days are here at last!!!”. Now, after three years, they’re beginning to reap the rewards and can point to cadres of African-Guyanese in all of the traditional “Opposition strongholds”!! Then they staged the coup de grace: at their Congress in early May, they announced they were dumping all references to “Marxism” and such ideological cant!! They were just about DEVELOPMENT!!
Sadly, the Opposition PNC/APNU/AFC were caught with their pants down – it wasn’t a pretty sight!! – after their dismal economic record: tax and spend to the max!!, and the big rig. They faced a leadership crisis that dragged on into the present. And their recent Congress (PNC) and Conference (AFC) just added to their woes. And you ask what happened to the APNU coalition, dear Reader?? You may well ask – but there’s no easy answer!! The four parties the PNC had roped in as a “coalition” have thrown out the PNC, who then claimed they were still in and leading!! Their ONE vote was more than the other FOUR!! But then the PNC always had a way with numbers!!
Over at the AFC, their leader announced he was interested in “consensual” opposition politics – which for some reason got translated by the PNC that the AFC chap was insisting that ONLY he could be that “consensual leader!!
Oy vey!!
…for a new Guyana
Well, the 2024 International Building Expo is only a month away, and it doesn’t matter what side of the divide you’re on…you gotta admit that the last two were great for our country as we try to build a new Guyana. Your Eyewitness knows there’s been Building Expos before – but trust him, those were different.
If for nothing else, it’ll make you get a concrete look (pun intended!) as to where this country of ours is headed – now that we’ve got some REAL money coming down the pike!! OK…let’s be honest: do you think hardnosed business types are going to ship down big-ticket items, like the all new 3-D Printer that constructs HOMES, if they didn’t think we have the big bucks to absorb the technology?? That system constructs homes in a matter of days – without the need for specialists such as brick layers, dry wall installers, roofers, carpenters, and their colleagues.
Let’s all prepare to be blown away after Emancipation Day!!
…for a mind change
Seriously, folks, you know your jaded Eyewitness doesn’t gush. But if you want to get a piece of local content that’s not directly tied to the oil industry, get into real estate!!
It’s gonna provide intergenerational wealth!!
