…a dirge for PNC?
Listening to PNC Chief Whip Christopher Jones recently describing the state of affairs in the PNC – in a press release no less! Your Eyewitness could be forgiven for thinking he was reading his party’s last rites. Among his milder declarations was this wail: “As we have seen, some threats challenge our existence. But as a national institution, our existence and purpose cannot be extinguished overnight… Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. The PNC is not dead.” Threats?? Defeat? Death?? What the heck’s going on??
Was he reacting to the departure of Amanza Walton-Desir to form her own party?? Does Jones really believe Walton-Desir BROUGHT any support INTO the PNC when Granger plucked her out of the government bureaucracy and practically appointed her to Parliament? And that she’ll take away that support with her departure? She was just a member of Granger’s Coloured Class, on whose support he could count!! That class is a parasitic class that needs the African mass base to survive – much less amount to anything – and without it they’ll just shrivel up and die!!
And that African base is – by and large – represented by people like Aubrey Norton, who’ve shared their travails and pains through his experience and not voyeuristically like Walton-Desir!! It’s true that the White man did his darndest to convince African Guyanese that their coloured spawns were closer to the white ideal – and as such better equipped to lead them. But you’d think by now folks like Christopher Jones’ eyes would’ve been opened up to the cruel hoax.
Or was Jones wailing about the AFC finally giving up on coalescing with the PNC?? There again, the Whip should’ve asked the pertinent question of democratic politics: how many votes would they have brought – and from where?? When Granger hooked up with them, the AFC had a goodly number of Indian Guyanese voters, dissatisfied with the PPP!! They’ve all dissipated like shaved ice in the sun – after Granger’s sugar shenanigans and Ramjattan/Naga’s acquiescence. Now all they got are some wannabe-coloured leaders!! Why’d he think Walton-Desir isn’t with them?? She’d be like a third wheel!!
But didn’t his leader Norton pull a masterstroke – and degut the AFC’s coloured pretensions – by announcing that one of their young prospects – Juretha Fernandes – was gonna be his PM candidate?? And while Fernandez might LOOK coloured, Norton emphasised her INDIGENOUS heritage!! Killing two (ethnic) birds with one stone!! Imagine the AFC leader thought HE could be the (possible) candidate!! While one of his own stars demonstrated she doesn’t even believe he’s viable!! That gotta be the unkindest cut of all!!
Anyhow, for what it’s worth, your Eyewitness thinks news of the PNC’s demise is greatly exaggerated!!
…about “defections”
Your Eyewiness wants to know what’s with dubbing the departures from a political party to join another as “defections”? This seems to him to be a term from the Cold War days when, for example, folks “defected” from East Germany to the West!! The centre of the road Wiki defines the term ‘thustly’ as: “In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state.” More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, cause, or doctrine to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.”
So, taking the second (milder) version, does joining a party imply swearing eternal fealty?? What happened to the constitutional right to freedom of association?? The problem is our politics is so polarised that most folks think parties are each other’s enemies rather than merely opponents who have different views on national matters.
So, did Burnham defect from the PPP??
