“All smart flies does get ketch in cow backside!” is a venerable old Guyanese bit of folk wisdom that has stood the test of time. The PNC’s always been one smart fly, so it ain’t no surprise it’s become ensnared once again in political do-do! The stink and dutty kind!! Their latest SNAFU (“situation normal…all F’d up!) came out of their attempt to pull wool over the eyes of the Guyanese public by claiming they weren’t the same big, bad PNC no mo’.
They’d hitched up with 4 one-man and 1 one-woman “parties” to form APNU.
Well, after they were ejected from office – in which their subterfuge played not an inconsiderable role! – they tried to regroup by voting for a new leader and leadership corps in Aubrey Norton and their 15-member CEC. A new makeover? Trouble is, Norton isn’t even an MP – having been stiffed by Granger! And Harmon – who was handily defeated in his quest to lead the PNC – remains the General Secretary of APNU, and was appointed as Opposition Leader by members of the APNU+AFC Coalition!! And the Sanctimonious Gangster Granger remained the “Representative of the APNU+AFC list” (RAAL) – with the power to determine who was sent to Parliament as MPs!!
So when – in this new year of Our Lord – the brand-new PNC Exec announced they wanted Norton – as leader of the PNC – to be both the Opposition Leader and the RAAL, it didn’t take a PhD in political science to figure out what happened!! The sh*t hit the fan, that’s what!!
Harmon snarkily sniffed in a statement from the Office of The Leader of the Opposition: “The APNU Partnership has an established structure, and if the executive of a party in the partnership has a position and they wish to express that position; they should follow the established procedure”!! The PNC – Harmon was reminding Norton – was just ONE member in a five-party APNU coalition, and as such would have to put its proposal to those coalition leaders for a vote!!
Norton’s ally, the WPA – one of the members of APNU – used to complain bitterly about Granger not consulting them, even though they were all equals in a democratic arrangement!! And just in case they forgot that (PNC’s) size didn’t matter, Harmon reminded them: “The Office of the Leader of the Opposition is a constitutional office, and is consequently governed by the constitution”!! Take THAT for boasting about the PNC’s superior democratic credentials!! Norton also wrote to Granger, asking him to fall on his RAAL sword and hand it over to him!!
The lines are drawn, and your Eyewitness has stocked up on popcorn to enjoy the fun!!
…and the AFC
The PNC’s warbreak has thrown a life raft to the AFC and Ramjattan – which had allowed Granger to use them like a doormat, and consequently reduced them to the “dead meat” they’d feared back in 2015. In that time, the smell must have driven even supporters like Geeta Chandan away! But then, there’s the saw about rats and sinking ships! Anyhow, Ramjattan – who’s the Deputy RAAL – immediately piped up, even though the PNC had studiously ignored him in their communications!
Said he portentously, “When you have legislative posts, you follow processes in accordance with the law. So not because the PNC Leader feels he should be Opposition Leader, Joe must leave. Joe has been appointed for five years, and until such time he resigns or there is a No-Confidence Motion against him by the APNU+AFC party block, he ought to serve”!!! Meaning the AFC has to also be consulted!!
For good measure, he added, “You can’t say, ‘this is what the party wants; haul yuh ass’ and that is it”!!
…and PPP’s schadenfreude
The word “schadenfreude”, dear reader, means, “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune”. And your Eyewitness is just wondering whether all that chortling from the PPP benches isn’t a reaction to the PNC’s predicament!!
