Dear Editor,
The Alliance for Change is a political party built on deception, lies, and betrayal. To fully grasp this factual statement, we need to define what ‘deception’ is.
‘Deception, or falsehood, is an act or statement that misleads; hides the truth; or promotes a belief, concept or idea that is not true. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda, and sleight of hand, as well as distraction, camouflage, or concealment.
The AFC mastered Deception 101. To begin with, we must analyze the founding principles of the AFC, and determine the extent to which the AFC has deviated from those principles. These founding principles were supposed to be immutable, drive the evolution of the party, be cast in stone, and any change must be built on these foundations; there must be no deviation.
Regrettably, it was quickly found that these principles were only meant to mislead, and mask the true intentions and the true nature of the AFC. The truth is that the only principle upon which this party was built was to wrest power from the PPP; to exact vengeance on the leader of that party: Dr Jagdeo, to be specific; and to grow rich in a hurry. That’s killing more than two birds with one stone.
In its first manifesto or Action Plan, the AFC graphically related the ‘heinous wrongs’ committed by both the PPP and the PNC, and pledged to be totally different from them: no corruption, no cronyism, no mismanagement of funds, and the list went on and on.
Mr Ramjattan had boldly declared, “Guyana is at a crossroads, and now is the time to make the right turn. Over four decades of PNC and PPP Governments have left us all bruised, weary, and hopeless. So, on this occasion, Campaign 2011, we must acknowledge the sins of our past and the challenges of the present”.
His erstwhile PNC colleague Mr. Trotman ‘testified and pontificated’ thus: “It must be a moment of great change, so that Guyana can emerge from underdevelopment, nepotism, and pettiness of past Governments. For 45 years, Guyana has had the same parties making turns in the wrong direction, disappointing and betraying its citizens, and allowing for an unfair distribution of the country’s wealth, as the rich get richer while most Guyanese continue to remain poor”.
These gentlemen were at the helm of the Coalition Government from 2015 to 2020, and you know the real truth. This is deception. The Alliance for Change prostituted their founding principles, and, together with the PNC, wreaked havoc on the social and economic wellbeing of all Guyanese, except the chosen few. At the end of the Coalition’s 5-year term, Guyanese were truly ‘bruised, weary and hopeless,’ as the Coalition made all ‘the turns in the wrong directions, disappointing and betraying its citizens’ and sold our oil patrimony by signing the Exxon Contract with its Stability Clause.
It was Mr. Trotman who orchestrated the betrayal of Guyanese by the signing of this Production Sharing Agreement. This is barefaced deception.
The Alliance for Change leaders, such as Ramjattan and Nagamootoo, shut their eyes and sealed their hearts to the countless grievous harm they and their families suffered at the hands of the PNC during its 28 years of dictatorship. They had vehemently condemned the massive rigging of elections by the PNC from 1968 to 1985, but accepted the many attempts to rig the 2020 Elections in plain sight, and even shamelessly claimed that it was the PPP/C who had rigged that Election. This only goes to show the extent of the moral degradation of these people.
I had exposed the propensity of the AFC to rig its internal elections, mismanage donations, practise corruption and cronyism. Yet, there is another deception.
The Alliance for Change leaders were also the ones who fought tooth and nail for the sugar workers when they were members of the PPP, and they continued to sympathise with those workers during the 2015 Election Campaign, when they got married to the PNC, again forsaking all the negative rhetoric which they had spewed against that party. They had only one nemesis, who must be destroyed at all cost, and it was the only way to wrest power and achieve the wealth they so craved.
They had made magnanimous promises to the sugar workers and all Guyanese. I saw an AFC pamphlet that was distributed in Albion, and it promised a 20% wage increase as soon as they got into Government. But they, together with the PNC, guillotined and cannonballed the sugar industry. Four Estates were hurriedly and unconscionably closed, and 7,000 workers were thrown into abject poverty. They had ‘rightsized’ the industry, and it suddenly became a ‘black hole’, according to Ramjattan. Moreover, the ex-sugar ‘champion’ Nagamootoo had stated thus: “Bailing out GuySuCo is like raiding the Treasury”. So, instead of lighting a candle as he loved to do, he lit a punt-load of dynamite. The promises of “no closure” and “20% wage increase” had served their purpose — the sugar workers were fooled into voting for the Coalition. If the PPP had not rescued the industry, by now all the estates would have been closed, since no capital injection was taking place despite $47 billion being squandered. This deception is in action.
Today the Alliance for Change is once again trying to deceive a handful of sugar workers into believing that they are standing by their sides in full support. It is these same people who are instigating the workers to strike and protest illegally who are the ones who had labelled them as ‘raiders’ or looters of the Treasury, and the industry as a ‘black hole’. But it was the AFC and the PNC who raided and looted the Treasury, and brought Guyana yet again to its knees. It is the PPP/C Government who had been by their sides, and it is time that they perform their patriotic duties which they owe to their own communities and their country. It is because of this Government that the Canje communities, New Amsterdam, and other outlying areas are once again emerging into prosperity.
I am appealing to these sugar workers not to be misled by those traitors who betrayed them as soon as they got into power and tasted ill-gotten wealth. Remember the old adage: Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Don’t fall victim again to these deceivers.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
