…PNC
When it comes to the question of power, CLR James, who accused Walter Rodney and Jagan of being naïve, could’ve never dared to even dream of doing so for the PNC. As a student of Machiavelli, Burnham – who saw politics as “war by other means” – left his master’s template for successors like Granger.
Politics, according to Machiavelli, isn’t fundamentally about justice or goodness; it’s about getting, and using, and keeping power. Power has its own rules, and these have nothing to do with morality. To understand power, he proposes that we focus on what works, not on what might be, or should be.
And what has worked for the PNC has been fraud and violence! Never mind Granger’s choir boy appearance; that’s also Machiavellian: the ruler must APPEAR to be virtuous, said Machiavelli, since “Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration”!!
The CCJ must follow its instincts about “authoritarian” imperatives of the PNC when it issues its consequential orders following today’s hearings. The PNC’s demands for HtH registration has as much to do with “credible” elections as the price of crushed ice — absolutely nothing. It has to do with two things: dragging out the elections as long as possible towards the “first oil”; and secondly, setting the stage for protesting the elections, which they know they’ll lose.
Granger and the PNC know that the present voters’ list is credible. They went to the LGE last year with the same list, didn’t they?? They didn’t raise any questions of “disenfranchisement”, whether of the youthful or the not-so -youthful then. Youths aged 14 were added to the list last year, and so those who’re 18 as of the next elections will automatically be sorted into the preliminary voters’ list.
So what’s new now?? Oil, that’s what!! They’re salivating at the thought of getting their grubby little paws on that oil revenue; but more to the point: at this state, they figure the voters would look somewhat more favourably on them if oil’s in the offing; and, hint, hint and wink, wink, they’ll be handing out cheques like Father Christmas!
Why do you think the First Lady was rushed over to “launch” the first FPSO in Singapore last week? It’s oil, baby! Oil!!
Just like Hoyte demanded a forensic audit of the 1997 elections results, but yet resorted to the courts to vitiate the results on a technicality about ID cards, HtH registration’s a plot to both delay elections and be the platform to launch violent protests, as Hoyte did in 1998.
Hope the CCJ read Machiavelli!!
…retrogrades
Poor Nagamootoo! He complained in his last portfolio left intact – his column in the Chronic – that an unnamed “broadsheet” has been pointing out that he’d been “shafted” and given “Larwah”. He didn’t deny the accusation, however, or that he evidently enjoyed the experience, since he wanted to return for more of the treatment!! But Ramjattan beat him to it!! Your Eyewitness wonders if Nagamootoo knows a “broadsheet” refers to a serious newspaper, as opposed to “tabloids”!!
Anyhow, Nagamootoo, went on to excuse Minister Jordan’s call for “war break” if the PNC’s demand for HtH isn’t granted, since “youths” will be disenfranchised.
Presumably because Jordan was addressing that demographic, Nagamootoo claimed the numbers man was just trying to be a “cool cat”!! Imagine that!! To emphasis his point, Nagamootoo invoked Sammy Davis Jr being described as a “cool cat”!! Sammy who? Maybe the almost 80-year-old Nagamootoo can remember Davis – a star from the 1960s – but does he really think Guyanese youths do?
No wonder PNC old heads outnumbered youths at the protest for their “franchise”!! Not dope!!
…and losing it
We know the old don’t “think” any longer, they mostly remember; hence Nagamootoo’s allusion to Sammy Davis. But in claiming Jordan didn’t call for a “real” war, what about boasting he’d worn his olive fatigues??
That was standard army gear even in WWII!!
