In 2005, the Alliance for Change (AFC) party, which was then considered ‘the third force’, promised to liberate Guyanese from the politics of divisiveness, hate, revenge, race and immaturity. It promised to work hard to usher in a period of unprecedented development, should it enter Parliament or become Government, by focusing on poverty reduction, the implementation of modern constitutional reforms, strengthening Government and State agencies, and paving the way for a new political culture wherein consensus and compromise as well as putting Guyana first would be paramount.
As the years went by, the AFC and its ‘third force’ politicians, rallied against Government corruption. They accused the then ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of incompetence, abuse of power, executive lawlessness, and condoning corruption. Raphael Trotman, the late Sheila Holder and Khemraj Ramjattan were considered by some as the new beacons of hope in the Guyanese society. The AFC rose to fame and continued its political work, vowing to never betray the working class people of this country; and, most importantly, never to join a coalition with the PPP or the People’s National Congress (PNC).
After all, the AFC resented both parties, and blamed them for the socioeconomic and political conundrum that Guyana was facing. As history recorded it, many Guyanese, especially those of mixed ancestry, bought the message of the AFC and gave them the votes they needed to taste parliamentary power. This happened despite boisterous warnings from the PPP that the AFC could not be trusted because those at its helm where defectors from the major parties, and were bitter, untrustworthy, revengeful, and thirsty for Executive power.
Sheila Holder died before the AFC underwent transformation under the leaderships of Trotman and Ramjattan. When she departed this world, the AFC was still a party that had the potential to force the other two main political relics into oblivion, because of the freshness of the AFC’s untested approach mixed with its promise to shake up the Government bureaucracy and engineer real change.
Now the party has become one of the biggest disappointments in Guyana’s political history, thereby beating the United Force and the Working People’s Alliance from the top slots after they, too, had failed to keep their momentum and deliver the kind of change this country needs to progress.
The post-2011 AFC is no longer the ferocious tiger guarding the public’s interest and purse. Instead of declining A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU’s) offer to join the coalition, which had the People’s National Congress (PNC) as its senior partner, those at the helm of the AFC became discontented with their lot. They wanted to taste Executive power. They wanted to use that power to wreak havoc on the PPP. There was no other mature political voice within the AFC to challenge their desire.
Moses Nagamootoo entered the pageant after failing in his last-ditch attempt to wrest the presidential candidacy position from other senior comrades in the PPP party. He later succeeded in wresting power away from more suitable persons in the AFC, like Cathy Hughes and Raphael Trotman, to become the coalition’s Prime Ministerial Candidate in the 2015 General and Regional Elections. The decision was now obvious, as both the AFC and PNC were on the same wavelength. They now shared a common interest, and it was not about delivering meaningful change to the masses, but rather securing their individual political futures.
Nagamootoo is now Guyana’s first Prime Minister without a serious portfolio.
The AFC is now justifying and defending every single executive abuse by the Government in which it serves. For the first time in 10 years, its leaders now are at the lowest point of their political careers, because they lack the moral authority and integrity to lecture the PPP or any other important stakeholder on matters pertaining to transparency, accountability and good governance.
The AFC appears happy with this coalition arrangement, but 2020 will prove how happy its supporters and financiers are with status quo.
AFC can be considered as part of the annals of history that will never be forgotten, because of its failure as a third force and a failed attempt at conciliatory politics. It did not have the political patience or discipline to break the trend of domineering politics.
