…the foot to fall in Parliament
Your Eyewitness was reminded by the Bard’s insight: “methinks the lady does protest too much” after being bombarded with bombast for days by the government ads boasting about all the “good” things they’d done in Guyana over the past four years. So your Eyewitness moseyed over to Parliament and its environs to check out the goings on and witness if the dénouement of the protestations would reveal the government really had no answer to the PPP’s no-confidence motion.
And it wasn’t just their protestations in the press. Seems that flyers had been distributed by the PNC calling for the faithful to gather in front of parliament to “protect democracy”. And here it was that we’d been taught by the PNC and the AFC only four years ago that “no-confidence motions” were the very essence of democracy!! Your Eyewitness received a screen-shot of a young government official swearing that the PPP would be infiltrating the gathered faithful to create “incidents”, and he wondered why would his party provide the opportunity in the first place for hiding these agent provocateurs??
Anyhow, after not seeing any massive crowds as he approached the Public Buildings he’d been expecting, your Eyewitness realized that this was another signal that “things na regula’” in the PNC camp. The singing, drumming and cuss-out of Jagdeo by the motley crew of bussed-in supporters was pathetic. Was this what the PNC had dwindled into? The first signal of its demise, of course, was the 34% PNC to 61% PPP results of the LGE. This had obviously made the Opposition Leader realize that the abysmal performance by the PNC since 2015 had forced its own supporters to remove their legitimacy. Hence the no-confidence motion.
Inside the National Assembly, Jagdeo, the Opposition Leader was in fine fettle – doing what he does best: marshalling facts and figures to demonstrate the unfitness and impropriety to allow the PNC coalition to continue mismanaging the affairs of the country. Your Eyewitness doesn’t have to go into the details, does he?? You, dear reader, have been living the dystopian reality the PNC ushered in and as Brother Bob said, “only he who feels, can know”!
Looking at the government MP’s heckling and banging their desks, it was clear that they were trying to intimidate the two or three from their ranks who they knew had been already been persuaded to vote their conscience.
The panic in their eyes was evident as they contemplated an election within three months. And then came the vote of AFC’s Charandas Persaud after the division!!
Democracy had triumphed!! God bless Guyana!!
…the rioting and looting
Not seeing any fireworks inside the National Assembly earlier, your Eyewitness had wandered past the PNC-rent-a-crowd at the side of St Andrews Kirk. He hoped the fella inside didn’t mind them spoiling the festive mood of HIS birthday!! Being a typical Guyanese, he squeezed over to the downtown shopping areas to do some last-minute shopping.
And he discovered a discomfiting fact: several vendors and shop owners were convinced there would be rioting at some point or other. And for sure if the PPP won their no-confidence motion. They were selling their wares with one eye poised for the rampaging mob that flattens the Commercial Section of Georgetown whenever the PNC doesn’t get its way.
The strain on some of the faces – even very young ones – was something to behold…and your Eyewitness was reminded of the facticity of “transgenerational trauma”. This is where the memory of the trauma of riots and violations are passed down from generation to generation. Every decade since 1962, Georgetown riots have scarred perceived PPP supporters. What will happen tonight?
Your Eyewitness hopes we have now transcended those challenges and accept the will of the people’s representatives.
…Garbage settlement
One accomplishment of the PNC government, according to Nagamootoo, to revive Georgetown to the “Garden City” status it once had under the “white man”.
Are the mounds of composting garbage intended to fertilize the Garden?
