The events at Parliament on December 21, 2018, reflect how a people rebel when they feel isolated and left behind by arrogant political elites. We in the silent majority can identify with the national excitement that happened on that fateful day. After three years, not even five per cent of their 2015 manifesto promises were delivered, although they spent more than a trillion dollars on mainly pageantry activities and the high life for the few in the Granger cabal (form rather than substance). They are so callous that they choose to spend GY$350 million for rum and fete at Mash rather than pay the severed Wales sugar workers in a timely manner.
The Alliance For Change (AFC) is dominated by a ‘gang of six’, and along with people like Charrandas, voted for a pension of almost GY$20 million a year for a certified People’s National Congress (PNC) thug. History will not be kind to all those who voted for that pension and thus it was good of Charrandas to make amend for his past errors by using his “one vote”.
What did the AFC do when Minister Volda Lawrence declared she’s only “giving wuk to PNC people”? The AFC leader endorsed her comments by unilaterally abrogating the voice of the AFC membership even though the Minister’s strategy would have resulted in AFC members being denied work. So was it not right for Charrandas to reclaim his voice from Raphael Trotman who operated as if he was a Caesar onto himself?
But where I can empathise 100 per cent with Charrandas was when he spoke of what this Granger cabal did to the sugar industry. Charrandas made it clear that as the regional representatives from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), he was never consulted. In Region Six, most of the economic activity is closely intertwined with the sugar industry. What happened instead was that these PNC leaders and their AFC friends in the ‘gang of six’, allowed their wolf masks to fall upon assuming office and attacked the sugar belt with a vengeance. What manner of people take bread from poor people’s mouths in such a fashion? Well the PNC/AFC did!
Charrandas also asked a very important question “What has Moses Nagamootoo done for the people of Berbice as their Prime Minister?” It was Nagamootoo and Ramjattan who promised the sugar workers at Whim in 2015 that they shall not close down sugar factories. But like classic Judas to the sugar workers, they rolled over for Granger as he supervised the closure of not one, not two, not three but four sugar estates in a short space of time. Such anti-patriotic, anti-national and anti-Guyanese policy action is truly deserving of the expression of no-confidence by the majority.
What Charrandas clearly elucidated was what I found in 2014 that led to my resigning from the AFC. The ‘gang of six’ that dominates all decisions in the AFC are a bunch of Georgetown political elites who have no interest in the poor and the working class; all that matters for them is their personal pockets, and their personal perks.
So I am happy that Charrandas found the testicular fortitude to do the right thing and use the “power of one” to put to rest this corrupt and incompetent PNC-led Granger cabal. What he did has nothing to do with whether the People’s Progressive Party benefits or not. It has everything to do with a principle that good human beings live by and it begins with this phrase “Yada yada hi dharmasya….” This phrase is taken from the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 4, verses 7-8 and the English translation to the Sanskrit is “Whenever dharma (righteousness) declines, God manifests in the soul of the chosen one in order to deliver the annihilation of the evil doers so that the welfare of the people closest to the heart can be looked after (the poor and the working class).”
Charrandas’s role is now over, he did his job of bringing an end to this PNC-led oppression and deception. As he said, he is a lawyer first and he wants to go back to what he does best – the law. I wish him well.
But be clear Guyana, in spite of these challenges, those challenges will be met but it has to be met with a team that is experienced, competent and capable. There is no room in 2019 and beyond for more Granger-like trainee and political washouts. That is why I am rejecting all these small parties and third forces in 2019. It is insane to make the same mistake twice and expect a different outcome. Let us return to the lean, clean and progressive form of governance that we experienced under Cheddi Jagan.
Season greeting Charrandas Persaud.
