At long last, Opposition Leader Norton and President Ali were sharing the same space, and Norton wasn’t glowering!! Your Eyewitness is still waiting, however, for a pic of him shaking the President’s hand! He’d vowed he wouldn’t shake hands with his oppressors and insisted that Pres Ali and his Government are oppressing Opposition supporters – read African-Guyanese in general, and him in particular. And he has a point: in full view of the world, Pres Ali and his Ministers are invading African-Guyanese communities, bearing all kinds of clearly oppressive handouts! And as for Norton, what’d you say when Pressie’s always stretching out his hand in a clear challenge to arm wrestle?!! Norton used to be a bruiser, but he’s past his prime now, and it ain’t fair!!
But it’s good our leaders are showing Maduro and the Venezies we’re united against his bullyism – not one spring cuirass and all that; but your Eyewitness hopes the meeting at OP signals the Opposition playing a more constructive role. And talking about “Opposition”, surprisingly, AFC’s head honcho Ramjattan was also at the meeting. He knows Norton’s gotta have somebody carrying his briefcase. And with all the other members of his delegation fighting for his job – if he ever dares call Congress!! – he couldn’t very well ask THEM!! So Mr Dead Meat had to be summoned to do the honours!
In any case, since we’re sending a signal to Mad Maduro, it was best that even the fringe elements were brought in. So why weren’t the Worst Possible Alternative lot – as Burnham dubbed them – there? They’re as fringe as you can get, and would’ve filled in the interstices of the delegation – and maybe even issued another Declaration of Buxton to make Mad Maduro shake in his boots!! The long-drawn-out rearguard action by the Opposition against the Government has clearly helped persuade Mad Maduro that it’s an opportune time for him to make another attempt to intimidate us.
So here we are, united against Venezies. But the statement coming out of the meeting will NOT convince Mad Maduro to reverse gear. He’ll figure that the knives drawn in the outfighting (between parties) and infighting (within parties – especially the PNC and Opposition) haven’t really been sheathed. What needs to be done is for the PNC to quit letting that extremist, racially provocative tail wag their multiracial dog – and for Guyana to return to regular, competitive elections and governments of “in and out” regularity.
And that’s where we’ll have the edge over Mad Maduro – who’s scared sh*tless to hold free and fair elections. Being democratic gives us a tremendous advantage in persuading the diplomatic community to keep on supporting us when we get the World Court judgement!!
…in possible warfare
One of the reasons the Opposition won the 2015 elections – apart from PPP incumbency fatigue – was they’d convinced some folks they would’ve done better in protecting our nation against threats like Mad Maduro. And Granger – with his phalanx of military types in his administration – certainly played that up!! So, when he bought those five high-tech, long-endurance drones to the tune of $180M back in 2019, your Eyewitness thought they were preparing us to be a high-tech small nation like Israel – that could’ve taken on the big bad bully next door!!
Well, now that Mad Maduro’s making good on his threats, where the heck are those drones Khemraj fronted? They assured us that the start-up manufacturer – Skyfront Drones — was totally cutting edge, and that’s why they paid five times more than the cost of drones with similar specifications. But hold it!! Those drones are our SECRET weapon, aren’t they?? So maybe they’re conducting recce on those Venezie troops massing on our border??
And we good??
…at United Nations?
Back on 24 October 1945 – after WWII – UN Day was announced for us to reflect on the United Nations, created to hold the peace. So, what’s it’s role with two wars being fought today?
