If it’s one thing the AFC’s known for – apart from a proclivity towards “ego politics” – it is a brutal honesty about the status of coalition talks with the PNC!! The ego politics is expected, since it was founded by folks who felt they shoulda been leading the PPP and PNC – and walked out when they were passed over!! But that also foreshadowed the said leaders mimicking Burnham and fighting to be top dog!!
On the honesty bit – who can forget leader Ramjattan (out of the PPP) predicting that, in any coalition with the PNC for the 2015 elections, the AFC would be “Dead Meat”!! Man…did he ever know what he was talking about!! The stench still hasn’t dissipated with the tenth anniversary of the coalition coming up this Valentine’s Day!! And maybe that’s why the present talks about another hitching up for this year’s end elections has been described by the present AFC Leader, Nigel Hughes, as being on “life support”!!
This means, however, that Hughes is a tad more optimistic than Ramjattan, since being on “life support” still offers hope that life might be fanned beyond the flicker now displayed.
But taking heed of what played out on the first go-round, Hughes has signed on to a two-stage MOU. This starts out to determine whether the two parties can even work together!! And beyond?? That’s not even being considered right now!! So, if you wanna see “keeping one’s options open” in action, it’s playing out before our eyes!!
Interestingly, in considering a closer relationship with the PNC, Hughes raised the same concern PPP’s Jagdeo had identified for years and years when pressed to “share power” in coalition with the PNC – TRUST!! Jagdeo would’ve arrived at his mistrust from six decades of betrayals of the PNC; and since the AFC’s experience is just 5 years, it means the PNC has definitely NOT changed its stripes!! Now, this coalition had been touted since last year’s Emancipation Day celebrations in Buxton, when one geriatric party announced there was gonna be a three-way leadership contest!! Your Eyewitness wonders where that “party” is now – when even two of them can’t get it going, and three’s always a crowd!!
As usual, beneath all the posturings, the issue is about ego – who’s gonna be the leader?? Hughes says there’s gotta be some “scientific mechanism” to identify that person, but Norton counters that, as the LARGEST party boss by far, HE should be the leader!! Now, since all Guyanese parties – especially the Opposition ones – are talking about DEMOCRACY being the criterion for governing, shouldn’t that also be the criterion for choosing any joint Opposition Leader??
With the PNC constituting a majority over the AFC, isn’t Norton the winner?!!
…in the States
Now, we were always advised – nay, TUTORED FOR CENTURIES – that when it comes to democracy, we should follow the UK and the US as our models!! It was rough on them to carry the White Man’s burden – which they manfully did, and are still doing for our sake. So, in case you’re confused a bit about all the dramatic changes Trump’s making to the status quo, then it means “the things are a changin’” – and they know best how to handle them.
We should take notice, and follow suit on those changes without fearing being hauled on the carpet – and even suffer regime change!! For instance, Trump’s gonna be getting rid of thousands and thousands of Government bureaucrats – equivalent to our civil service – because it’ll now be the norm that these workers should be TOTALLY supportive of the new policies of the new government!! None of that 19th century British “impartial” bureaucracy!!
No matter what the PPP thinks, they’d better fall in line!! Or else!!
